Agents: Downloaded
by Stormhawk
Summary: What happenes when Jonas decides to turn turn the Matrix into a movie.
1. Into the real

**Title: **Downloaded

**Author:** Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Disclaimer: **

Matrix universe and associated characters: Wachowski brothers. 

Agents universe: co-owned by me and Mordax. 

Stef, Stevie, Jonas, Carol, Grady, Nevin, Tavis: Me

Greer: Overlord Mordax 

**Word Count: **6009****

**Summary: **In his world, Jonas has decided to turn the world of the Matrix into a movie. 

**Notes:** The idea for this hit me over the heard (and it hurt) the other day. The three new characters in it are loosely based on everyone on FFN. Hopeless Matrix-addicted fan boys who read and write fanfic and live on the Internet.  

Ok, to my regulars: You guys mean so much that I have chosen to immortalize you within the words of this series. Ok, your names have been tweaked but I'm sure you will recognize them. Hope you don't mind and take it as a compliment. If you can't figure out who you are or figure that you should be on the list and aren't, email me or talk to me on the board. 

**Please read and Review.**

"Damn I love The Matrix," Nevin said as they walked away from the holo-theatre. 

"And what, we hate it?" Tavis replied, as he brushed some popcorn off his black fan-shirt that quoted Morpheus' line, 'welcome to the real world.' "We've seen it as many times as you have."

"Duh, we live together, of course we've seen it as many times as you have," Grady said 

"I wonder if the FFW server is back up, I want to read the rest of that fic."

"No, I want to watch the Animatrix again. Second renaissance, damn the humans."

"You have a problem Grady," Nevin said rolling his brown eyes and shaking his sharp-featured face.

"Shut up Mr. Anderson."

"Morpheus help me," Nevin said, playfully cringing behind Tavis. 

"Leave him alone Agent Grady," Tavis said adopting a Morpheus-like pose, though the oldest of the three looked nothing like the rebel, Tavis was short and stocky, his deep gray eyes were large and complemented his black hair. "He is the One."

"You're both viruses. And it's Recruit Grady." The tall boy said rolling his own eyes, which were green.

"Great, so you're an expendable coppertop." Nevin said, having stopped cringing. 

"No, watch it again when we get back. Recruits aren't expendable, the agents value them."

"No way. They're just humans." Tavis argued.

"You never get it, there is a philosophy about choice and balance. You just don't like the bad guys."

"Yeah Grady, they're bad," Nevin said chewing on a piece of popcorn that had gotten wedged in his sleeve.

"Who's the one with the Agent Mimosa wallpaper?" Grady teased as he pulled at his brown hair that had a natural, abnormal but natural, streak of white running though it. Nevin poked his tongue out as they rounded the corner.

"Guys, this way," Tavis said as he pointed to the corner shop. "We're out of food."

"We've got space food."

"Nevin, no one but you eats that."

"We got money?" Grady asked.    

"I got paid yesterday," Tavis said as he pulled out his card. Notes and coins hadn't been used since 2030 and all transactions were electronic. His card had a photo of him (he was cross-eyed in the picture) and was made of an extremely strong plastic so that it couldn't be easily damaged.

Walking into the store they split up, each knowing exactly what they had to get – it was a routine they had grown into after they had moved in together after they had finished high school. Fifteen minutes later they met up at the checkout and the holographic check out chick smiled at them as she scanned their purchases in.

Holograms were exceedingly common in their city, though not as so in other cities. The reason was quite simple; they had two of the largest holographic research and development institutes right there. Until recently HoloTech had been the only one but in the last six months JonasLabs had developed a huge range of new technologies and innovations. 

There was only one ethical rule. The holograms were not allowed to be truly intelligent, that would cause too many problems so they were instead just very well programmed. It allowed humans to take on better jobs. With the huge increase in job opportunities since the globe officially declared itself digital in 2015 joblessness hadn't been a huge problem.

After paying for their purchases they left and walked the few blocks to their home. They adored their home. It was a basement (though they referred to it as subterranean, something they thought it sounded better) that was as big as the entire underside of the building. It had originally been storage space but when the refurbishing had taken place there was no longer a need for it so it was redone and rented.

It had been on the market for six months before the boys had found it. Desperate to rent it, the manager had given it to them at half price so long as they were locked into a five-year contract. That was fine, as they had no plans on moving for a couple of decades.  

Nevin flicked on the lights and the computers, Tavis hauled the food through to the kitchen and Grady checked the mail slot. 

"Junk, junk, another bill? Nevin we told you to stop ordering junk from that place," he said as he tossed a package at the shorter teen. 

"Junk? It's not junk."

"It's Empire comics. They suck."

"We can't all be Marvel boys Grade," Nevin said as he tore open his package of six comics. 

"I'm DC, don't forget that," Tavis called from the kitchen.

"It's here! Yay!" Grady said as he jumped the couch and slipped the thin card into the player. 

"I didn't think it was due out so soon," Nevin said as he flicked off the light. Though they were on the other side of the war, it was nonetheless something exciting.

"It wasn't supposed to be," Grady confirmed as Tavis came through from the kitchen and sat in the recliner. He continued as the holo-player warmed up, "Jonas is going on holiday so he put this ep out early."

"How do you know?"

"Web. Duh."

"What's it about?" Tavis asked as the JonasLabs logo appeared. The holo-projector was the next natural step in evolution from the two-dimensional television. Though they had no form, the action and characters would play out in three-dimensions rather than two. 

"I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to watch it. All I know is that there's some new characters introduced."

"Shut up, it's starting."

"Want to see it from the other side?" Mimosa's voice invited from the sound system as the credits sequence started.

Agents: The Series, flashed in green before it was drowned out by code. There was a rush of clips from earlier episodes then a freeze frame of major characters. Though it in no way had as large a fan base as the movie that were pro-resistance this series had a strong fan base. 

The pictures stopped and the title appeared 'Frames of Reference.' 

"Hey that's the name of my fic," Tavis complained. "Damn that Jonas, he stole it."

"Shut up, that fic wasn't that great anyway."

"I thought it was."

Grady paused the projector. "You stole that idea straight out of 'The Traitor' so it wasn't original to begin with."

"That's what fan fiction is, playing with ideas that were never developed by the creators."

"No incarnation of Stef would ever betray Smith like that."

"But…"

"That was a glitch. Anyway it didn't make any sense, why wouldn't he have known she was a program, they can see that."

"Jones programmed her to look human."

"If they were suspicious of him, anymore suspicious than they are in canon, they would simply tell the mainframe to initiate a backup copy of his code rather than go to the trouble of creating a deception agent."

"I liked that idea."

"So do I, I read every chapter didn't I? Right until the end, which sucked."

"I was planning a sequel but it only got forty-five reviews."

"That's not bad for a six chapter fic."

"Are we going to watch this or not?" Nevin asked. "Cause if we aren't I'm going to go read my comics."

"Ok Anderson," Grady said as he pushed the play button.

"You think Whitman will be in this one?"

Grady paused it again. "Not unless it's a Crete story, remember she's in the real world with him."

"Jonas must have been on LSD when he came up with that? But do you notice that it's only in this and not in the movie?"

"It's a spin-off series, it doesn't have to be the same. Now be quiet or I'll pull that unable-to-speak trick on you."

"Yeah right, recruit."

He pressed play again; this time there were no interruptions. 

*****

Jonas hadn't been worried about leaving his facility. It had the top security in the city and probably the state. He and Carol were just going to have a holiday and enjoy the success of the multimedia franchise that was The Matrix. He had been considering the idea for a while and one day had simply gone ahead with it.

He had created the first holo-movie by simply piecing together files of Neo's journey into the real world and becoming the one, possibly the most interesting thing that had happened in a while in their world. The audience had loved it, that's why six months later it was still in the theatres.

Next had been a series of shorts, named the Animatrix because they were animated, he had always loved ancient techniques and animation was one of them.

Then had come the Agents series, he had to profit from those annoyances somehow. Splitting off from the first movie (for he had a sequel planned) it revolved around the 'bad guys' and _her._ Carol had objected to that but had quieted down once he had created a whole string of episodes centric on her.

He simply recorded their reality, he even included the factor of his world, though he had renamed the character based on him 'Crete'. And it had made him rich. That's why they were taking a holiday.

*****

"I give it three out of five," Tavis said. "Not one of the better ones."

"Come on," Grady argued. "That was a five star ep."

"Good rebels, give me a break."

"Cypher was a traitor. He would have gotten plugged back in."

"I thought it was better than FoS," Nevin said as they walked over to their computers. The other two agreed.

"Hummer is cool."

"You just like him cause he's as absentminded as you are."

"Shut up."

"I will not shut up Nevin."

Hanging above the three computers was a Spyder; it was how the computers accessed the web nowadays. Years ago, they had either used a modem or broadband access. Now everything was done by a Spyder (named for the pun with 'web') it was simply the best of all worlds. It was tied into the hard-line like the old cable Internet was but it was also a satellite receiver, as satellites could access most servers. 

The Spyder would automatically select with function would load the pages faster and do it that way. Though, the difference was only a matter of seconds. Though it did make quite a difference when you were downloading.

Or hacking. 

But the trio only hacked sometimes and certain sites at that. Mainly it was official Matrix site. _Followthewhiterabbit.web _.web had replaced .com years ago, it was simple. http:// was a thing was a thing of the past as were country codes, except in certain cases. 

The governments were a great example. Gov.au, gov.us etc, each were the main government where subdirectories and sites could be accessed from. It had been a major shake up in 2018, when the net had been completely overhauled and made simpler and more streamlined. Spyders though were a relatively new invention, having come into common use in 2050.  

For now, the three fan boys were going to do the thing that they did best. The thing that consumed most of their time. The thing that they were unable to live without, that defined their lives. 

Fan fiction. 

Their only hope was that the FFW server was working, though it was an ultra-rare occurrence they all shuddered at them memory from three years ago when it had been down for five days straight. 

After checking their w-mail (web mail) Grady and Nevin clicked over to the fanfiction.web site. Tavis however, pressed a small blue device on the side of his slim monitor. A voice recognition system. These were quite common so that disabled people could use computers with relatively no trouble.

Tavis, even though he could have used normal software had chosen to instead write his own, he wasn't disabled, he was just lazy. But the software had a habit of breaking down and back chatting. It didn't back chat in a human way, it would just spit error messages at him. Nevin and Grady didn't know why he bothered; it wasn't so different from the ones already on the market.  

"Wait a second," Tavis said as the FFW page opened up on his screen, having resorted to typing on the keyboard like the others. "Is anyone else on the board?"

"Didn't check," Nevin said as he opened up the message board/chat site that was devoted to both ATS and the Animatrix. "Nah, no one."

"Not anyone?" Grady asked as he clicked the movies category.

"Members not online," he read from the screen. "Karen Luffer, Underlord D Fonce, Ara, Die Dowji, L-Tory, Ollie is furry, three skitz jade angels, Star-slayer, Rocki, Jeni, Thunder Eagle, Muse, Blue quadruped, Outgral, Alloy sin, The very disturbed fairy. No one we know is on there."

"Ok," Tavis said. "We fic."

"You guys uploading anything?"

"No, I'm still waiting for reviews for my last one."

"You uploaded it five hours ago, and it was only 600 words long."

"I wrote it on a sugar high."

"That would probably explain why Brown was apologizing to his sandbag."

"Give it a couple more hours Nevin, you'll have some reviews. Two at least," Tavis said with a look at Grady.

"Great, pity reviews."

"Better than nothing Smurf."

"Great, Stef says 'Smurf' so you have to say it."

"Sue me rebel."

"If you two would kindly be quiet, I'm reading and fic." Tavis complained.

"That Stef/Greer one you started last night?" Nevin asked as he clicked up the Matrix category.

"Uh-huh. I'm up to chapter five."

"That's never going to happen."

"Yeah, Jones I know."

"Nah, Darth. Stef and Darth."

"Eh, maybe." Nevin said distractedly as he started on a parody fic. 

A few hours later, not by any means bored of their fic but rather hungry they let their Spyder rest while they cooked dinner. It was a simple thing; throw the food bag in the Nuke1500 and wait. One minute later the food would be ready. 

Insta-meals ruled. All the essential vitamins and minerals in an easy to prepare package, they didn't taste half-bad either. Tonight, the trio dined upon Lasagna and fries.

Tavis was so engrossed in the fic that he was reading that he barely noticed the conversation taking place between Grady and Nevin.

"You could never do it, the system is too well guarded."

"No Nevin, that's what everyone thinks, no one has ever tried to hack the system. I'm going to get in."

"You're going to hack your way into the JonasLabs main server? They use an original OS in there, he has the top security in the state around there, I've heard that it's better than some of the smaller gov sites."

"So they say, it could be a rumor," Grady argued as he shut down his open web pages and opened up the hacking software that he'd written himself.

"How much are you willing to bet that you'll get in?" Tavis asked out of curiosity.

"If I don't get in tonight I'll eat Nevin's space food for three days."

"Damn you're serious aren't you?"

"Considering I'd rather kill myself than eat that junk."

"I. Am. Sitting. Right. Here," Nevin reminded them.

They shrugged, Tavis went back to his fic, the story was seventeen chapters long and very interesting. Nevin shook his head and opened a packet of space-food, it wasn't really called that, it was merely dehydrated food that could be eaten straight from the packet and was supposedly able to last one hundred years without going rotten.

It was more or less like eating dry noodles. 

He chewed on the chicken-flavored food stick and posted aimlessly on the message board. 

After an hour of trying Grady grew furious and walked around the room with his head in his hands.

"Giving up?" Nevin taunted.

"I never give up the hack. Do you have any idea what is sitting on his server? What we can get our hands on if we get in?"

"It's impossible."

"Nothing is impossible Nevin," Tavis said having finally finished the fifty thousand plus word story and writing a review. "If Grade says he can get in then I believe him."

"You want to know what I believe? I believe he's the best hacker out of the three of us but that he will have to learn to like this stuff cause he will never get onto Jonas' server."

"I will too," Grady insisted and went back to his computer.

"What kind of security is it?" Nevin asked.

"There's two different routes in, one is impossible even for me, you'd have to be Neo to get into through there. The one I'm trying is a series of codes."

"What are you trying?"

"Everything from Elite to Underground," he said. "And everything in between."

"Maybe that's what he wants you to think."

"What are you thinking Nevin?"

"About the mines of Moria actually. They were thinking that it was complicated so therefore they were missing out on the fact that the answer was in fact simple."

"LOTR is ancient but you might be onto something. What do you suggest?"

"If you were Jonas and you knew that fan boys were going to try and hack your system you'd work against their mentality right?"

"But JonasLabs also does all the AI research so it wouldn't only be Matrix fans would it?"

"No, but the research has taken a back seat to the franchise. Judging by us cause we're pretty good stereotypes for the type of person who would hack the system what would be the last thing you would do?"

"Something to do with the movie or the Animatrix or ATS."

"Exactly."

"Nevin you are actually being intelligent." Tavis commented.

The boy smiled, "I know – scary isn't it?"  

"Yes, yes it is."

Grady spent the next half hour building a new d-base of password combinations, he did this by using his program called Sneaky_Key which spit the passwords at the firewall for him. All he had to do was sit back and wait for the results. It hadn't worked with the previous d-base of words but this new one might work if Nevin's line of thinking was right.

He compiled the new d-base by copying and pasting in the transcripts of the Matrix, all the animated episodes and every episode from ATS. In addition he included some important dates or numbers that had been mentioned. 

Sitting back, he waited. And waited. And waited some more.

After ten minutes, however there was a breakthrough. Sneaky_Key had broken through the first firewall. He looked at the log to see the password. 

[Password = '555-0690']

He stared at Nevin, "holy shit you were right."

"Hey, though I look it, I am not stupid."

"Remind me never to underestimate you again."

"I will but you will anyway."

Five minutes later the second firewall broke.

[Password =  'B166ER']

After that, the next five were easy.

[Password =  'Dream world']

[Password =  'Carol Whitman']

[Password =  'Project 002']

[Password =  'Carlson']

[Password =  'Simulation']

Grady's eyes grew bright as he watched the screen in awe. "We're in."

*****

"This one?" the dusky-haired girl asked holding up another shirt.

"Stevie I wouldn't even like to image what your dad would do if he sees you in something like that."

"Come on, you probably dressed like this."

Stef took the shirt off the younger girl and stuffed it back on rack, "tight fluro green shirts weren't really my thing."

Stevie laughed, "I was joking. I like these better," she said indicating to the pile sitting beside the register. The pair were in Meteorite, a shop that carried everything from cowboy boots and plaid shirts to Goth gear and jewelry. It was the essence of eclectic.

"We'll take these," Stevie said to the purple-haired teen behind the counter. Her nametag read Ri. 

"All right," she said with a smile as she scanned the barcodes. Stevie reached into her purse and pulled out her bankcard that was attached to the bottomless bank account that she and the crewmembers of the Exodus shared. The card read _Brooke S Tarker _it was the name on the faked file that had allowed her to get plugged back in without suspicion. 

After paying for her purchases they walked out of the store but lingered looking at the display of jewelry. Most of it was silver in color, though some pieces were clearly pewter, and had interesting or intricate designs. 

"Having a good day?" Stef asked her.

"Yes. Everyday I wake up is great, knowing that I'm home and away from that crappy ship."

"Where next?"

"I picked Meteorite, you choose next."

"I don't care, this is your day."

Stevie grinned to herself. "Can we go to Amy's?"

Stef shook her head. "No way Steves, you're not tricking me into that. Your dad made me promise that you would not get your ears pierced."

"It doesn't have to be my ears. I can get my tongue done or get a belly bar."

"Are you trying to get me deleted? He said 'no', many times actually."

"Ok, ok."

"CD store, your room could do with some posters." Stevie nodded as they walked there. 

"Ooh," Stef said as they walked in. "I didn't know this was out," she said picking up a CD. 

"Who is it?"

"Shadows, you wouldn't have heard of them, they haven't been out long." She looked at new album; it was almost a pun or a joke or something. The cover art had a picture of a computer screen with a hand beckoning the listener in with the background consisting of binary code in different colors. 

The title was 'System Debris.' She picked up two copies. 

"Who's the other for?" Stevie asked as she headed over to pop. 

"Greer, he's one of the recruits."

Stevie looked at Stef and giggled, "Is he your boyfriend?"

"NO!" Stef replied sharply.

"Oooh, I think you like him."

"Shut up Stevie."

"I'm gonna tell my dad," she threatened in a singsong voice. "Stef's got a boyfriend, Stef's got a boyfriend."

Stef buried her head in her hands, "would you shut up? Everyone can hear you."

"You're just embarrassed."

"He. Is. NOT. My boyfriend. Ok? He's just a friend ok? Do I have to translate it to teenager for you?"

"I can hear you just fine."

"You are as annoying as a little sister. You make me glad I never had one." 

The grin disappeared from Stevie's face and she busied herself with the selection of CD's in front of her. Stef got the feeling that she had said something wrong. "Hey what's wrong?" she asked softly.

"It's just…I always kinda thought of you as my sister. I don't mean to be annoying."

"Oh shit Stevie, I was joking. I can be your sister if you want me to. I was lying, I always wanted a little sister – just not one who says that Greer is my boyfriend."

"You mean that?"

"Yeah sis, let's get these CD's and go somewhere else."

"I haven't picked anything yet," Stevie argued. 

"These will do," Stef said picking up a random handful of CD's. "You're bound to like something on one of them."

*****

"So what are we looking at Grady?" Tavis said, finally regaining the ability to speak after five minutes of solid staring at the screen. Part of it was the fact that his friend had actually been able to get into the best-guarded system in the state. The other was the system itself; they had never seen anything like it before. 

"The most well designed OS that I have ever seen."

"You can say that again," Nevin breathed. "But don't cause I know you will."

Grady pulled up random filed and typed keys at random until he began to get a handle on the way the system worked. It was fairly simplistic, it had been designed by someone who loved computer and liked an easy OS to work with. All the basic commands were the same and the rest weren't hard to extrapolate.

"Well guys, what do we want?"

"Whatever we can get," Nevin said voicing exactly what they wanted. 

"Will do." But after pulling up folder after of Matrix-related stuff he couldn't find anything of interest that they didn't already have.

"Well this bites," Tavis said. "I thought it would be a lot cooler. Get out of there before you get caught for nothing."

"You guys go back to whatever it was you were doing. I want a little more time on here, I know I can find something."

"Well," Nevin said opening another packet of space-food, "you can waste time if you want. I'm going to back to the board. I'm going to annoy L,Tory and Blue quadruped."

"Go ahead and be random Nevin," Grady said, "you're very good at it." While his two friends busied themselves at their separate computers he pulled up deeper system folders until he came upon a whole new level of the system that had been hidden from him before.

He knew he had been going to find something; he had a feeling that this was it. 

Running through lists of files he realized that he was looking at the source codes for the holo-actors and holographic locations. He was in the heart of the system.

He was looking at his own version of the Holy Grail.

"Holy system codes. Guys!" he had to shout before he exploded. "Come here, come here, come here!"

"What is it?" Tavis asked.

"Look!" he said as he was on the verge of hyperventilating and was unable to form many words at a time. Knowing their friend wouldn't go crazy unless it was truly cool they pulled their chairs up besides.

"Please tell me I'm looking at what I'm thinking at," Tavis said as he reached out and touched the flat surface of the monitor.

"You are," Nevin said holding his pointed chin. "He found it. He's…"

"The one," Tavis said. "We bow down to you."

"Let's explore," Grady said having regained control of his voice. The others just nodded dumbly. 

"We have to download some of these," Nevin said with a smile on his face. 

"Hook the holo-player in and we'll have a look at them." Tavis ran over with a uni-cable and plugged it into the projector. The uni-cable system allowed any peripheral to be plugged into the same port, that way they were much easier to replace and hook up systems. 

The thin cord was plugged into the back of the player as Grady scrolled down the list of 'characters'.

"It's in alphabetical order," Tavis said, "Can you skim the list down a bit?"

Fairly confident that he could work out how to control it, Grady nodded. Pulling up Sneaky_key's 'little brother' All_access, he copied all the character file locations and used the simple interface to sort them according to their properties.

"Rebels, civilians, programs…what do we want?"

"All of it Grady, we want it all," Nevin said ogling the screen. "Whatever we can find."

"Can I pick first?" Tavis asked.

"No, we use a fair way of deciding."

"And that would be…?" Nevin asked Grady.

"What it always is: paper, scissors, rock." The other two nodded their head in agreement. 

Winning the best three of five Grady threw up his hands in triumph, "I go first."

"Well, it's fair," Tavis said begrudgingly, "you did get into the system."

"Got that right Morph. I know who I'm getting first."

There would be only one program who he would choose to get a copy of first, "in that case we don't mind," Nevin said as Grady ran through a list of the agents. 

*****

"Did he tell you?" Stevie after she swallowed some potato bake, "did he tell you I have to go back to school?" She groaned as it seemed like the worst thing that could ever happen (besides getting unplugged) 

Stef nodded, "it's only fair – you're only fifteen. You have your whole life ahead of you."

"But I just got home, I want time to have fun."

"You can have all the fun you want, it doesn't mean you can't go to school at the same time."

"School…fun, does not compute," she said in a robotic voice. 

"School can be fun," the agent argued. 

"Right…"

"Now Stevie listen to me…" She went to explain the value of an education but the world disappeared from sight as she felt herself being pulled backwards into a void. 

Jonas! She swore silently. It could only be him.

*****

"It's working," Nevin all but yelled as the holo-player grew brighter and a form started to take shape. 

"Yes!"

***

Why? Hadn't he had enough fun for a while? Program a few commands, send her life to hell and back and then delete the history.

Damn you Jonas. 

She snapped together as the process ended, slowly opening her eyes she was not where she had expected to be. Three guys a couple of years younger than her stood up and away from a small line of computers.

"Grady, you're a genius."

"I know."

"Oh god. It's the Buffy geeks." Stef exclaimed. 

All three went 'eek' and stumbled back a few paces. 

This wasn't Jonas' lab, this was nothing like what she had seen before, turning and looking around it wasn't even a lab, it was just a home to some messy teenage guys.

"It's got to be a programmed response," the one with the creepy white streak in his hair was saying. "Jonas is one damn good programmer."

"Programmed response my digital ass!" she snapped at them. 

Huddling in close to each other they slowly walked forward. "It's just a hologram," Tavis said, "just a very well programmed hologram."

"I'm not a hologram."

"How can it be interactive?" The short one with the pixie features asked. "It's just a hologram."

"What's your name?" Tavis asked.

"Agent Mimosa." 

"See, basic answers, it's only interactive to a certain point, like the waitress at Marshes that you keep trying to date Nev," Tavis said. "The real Stef would have said 'Stef Mimosa' not 'Agent Mimosa.'"

"Hello? I am right here."

"Who else do we want to pull through?" Tavis asked looking back at the computer.

"Wait a minute Tav," Grady said, seeing something besides dead holographic eyes. "Are you aware?"

"No, not at all," she said sarcastically. "You hacked Jonas' system didn't you?"

"How do you know about Jonas?"

"How would I not?"

"She must interact with him…I wonder what kind of interactions?" Tavis pondered. 

Less than a second later a Desert Eagle was pointed at his head. "Say that again and I will find a way to kill you, I don't care if I'm only a hologram in this world."

"This world?" Grady asked.

"Listen, I know exactly where I am. I'm in the real, real world."

"Crete's world?"

"Who the hell is Crete?"

"Who created the Matrix?"

"The mainframe. But in reality it's just sitting on Jonas' file server."

"Reality? In Reality?" Nevin said with a giggle. Stef fired but the bullet disappeared once it left the range of the holo-player. 

"What's so funny about reality?"

"Reality is the episode where you found out about Crete and the Matrix being only a simulation within a simulation."

"I ask again, who is Crete?"

"Oh shit…oh shit…" Grady said catching on. "Oh my god, oh wow." 

Really wishing she could kill someone, "are you able to speak real words?"

"Yeah, what's your gig Grady?"

"It's all real, Jonas is doing AI research right? Jonas is Crete, he…the Matrix is real, it's all real. He's based the movie and series on his research."

"No way." Nevin said.

"That's impossible." Tavis argued.

"What movie?"

"That can't be right, the insta-food must be off."

"That sounds exactly like something Jonas would do."

"Well, if behind all the PR he's anything like Crete then it's all possible."

"You're basing this all on the fact that this hologram, admittedly of the hottest agent ever…"

"What about Carol?" Nevin interjected.

"Has a really good interactive sub-routine." Tavis finished, he wasn't ready to accept that it all could be real, even if it was a fan-boy dream come true. 

"Hot? The only hot thing about me is the lead slugs that come out of the end of my gun. Put me back in before Jonas finds out and leaves me out here forever."

"He's on holiday." Grady said. 

"Ok, I will believe all this if you can prove that you are who you look like and are conscious." 

"What do I have to do?"

"Be random, programmed holograms are unable to be random."

"Purple monkey puke face," she deadpanned. "Is that random enough?"

"You're not lying. The Matrix is real. The Matrix is real!" Tavis screamed. 

"Give him a shot of something before I find a way to and put me back in."

"You don't have to leave so soon, you only just got here."

"Forgive me but I hate this world."

"We're not all Jonas."

"I know but…"

"Then what harm can it do? I'm Grady," he said holding out his hand. 

"Holograms can't shake hands, unless you've got one of those disc things."

"Somewhere, it would probably be a good idea to get you out of the buffer."

Meanwhile, Tavis was still bouncing around the room chanting 'the Matrix is real,' with Nevin closely following to make sure he didn't hurt himself. 

Five minutes later she was out of the buffer and her programmed was tied to the disc, she was solid. "I'm Grady," he said holding out his hand again.

"And I don't have a short-term memory problem," she said. "I'm Stef."

"We know, trust us we know," Tavis said as he grabbed her hand and shook it so much her arm threatened to fall off. 

"How exactly do you know? You're not like his interns or something?"

"Us? Right. He's the best single programmer in this part of the world and we're nerds just out of high school."

"That I can see for myself, how do you know who I am?"

All three looked at each other, "um…it's easier if we show you," Tavis finally said and beckoned her over to the tower beside the holo-player that held all the video cards. He pulled out a selection and laid them out in front of her on the cabinet. 

"This came out about six months ago," Nevin said holding up the Matrix card. "It's still in the theatre but this is a pirate copy."

"The Matrix is a movie to you?"

"Basically." 

"But it didn't stop there, next came the Animatrix which were shorts then you came along."

"Me?"

"Well ATS anyway," Grady said. "Agents: The Series, it's about the agents and the recruits."

"I see," she said as she shook her head slowly, this wasn't a move she would have expected Jonas to make. 

"It's very popular if that makes you feel any better."

"Not really, there are enough layers of fiction without this happening."

"Do you have any idea how cool this is?" Nevin almost shouted, "We are your biggest fans." The other nodded in agreement. 

"I thought you guys were on the rebels side," Grady said smugly.

"The rebels?" she asked.

"Well the movie is on their side," Tavis admitted. 

"You want to watch it?" Nevin asked.

"Nevin!" Grady said sharply. "Won't that wreck the universe or something?"

"No cause it's already happened."

"Ok, well?"

"Ok." She said, a little confused but these guys seemed ok, better than Jonas anyway and she was interested to see what a rebel-centric movie would be like considering she knew the people it was about. Sure, what the hell? What could possibly go wrong?

Tavis detached the holo-player from the computer, stowing the uni-cable in the nearest drawer and then he put the card in. 

Grady dimmed the lights and they all sat down. "Can you require us some popcorn?" Nevin asked.

"No, I can't require out here."

"Damn." He commented as the movie started. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Ok, I'm cutting it here before the file size gets too big. Onto chapter 2. 


	2. Spyder Web

**Title: **Downloaded: Chapter Two

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Notes: **Nope.****

**Word Count: **2282****

**Please Read and Review.**

For a moment there was nothing but blackness, the only light was coming from the holo-player, there was a click as Grady pressed pause and twisted a different dial to turn the lights back up. 

"She's still here!" he almost screamed. 

The Tavis did scream, again and went running around the room. Nevin's face split into a wide grin as he went to stop his friend from hurting himself. Then he too started to run around the room before collapsing into a nearby chair. 

"It's all really real," Grady said. "Oh my god I don't believe it. I hope I'm not dreaming." 

Stef leant over and pinched him. "You're not dreaming. You didn't have a problem a minute ago, why now?"

"Fine, I'm not dreaming. Then again, how would I know the difference between the dream world…?"

"Don't quote Morpheus or I will kill you."

"Sometimes when we've been up for a lot of hours without sleep we see things that aren't really real. Nevin thought he saw Greer once. The Matrix is real," he squeaked like a little girl.

"I'm trapped in a house with three obsessed fan-boys, this is marginally better than Jonas' lab." 

Tavis knelt down and started to bow. "We are your humble slaves, do with us whatever you will. I do mean whatever," he said as he leant his forehead on her shoes. 

"Please get up you're embarrassing yourself." 

"Marry me please," he begged with puppy dog eyes. She stifled a giggle.

"She'll injure you Tavis," Grady said from the kitchen as he threw a bag of popcorn into the Nuke1500. Taking only twenty seconds it was only just slower than requiring some. 

"Please? We worship the digital ground you walk on. You're real, it's all real!"

"Please stop shrieking like a little girl." Tavis nodded, pouted dejectedly and got up. 

"Can we watch the movie?" Nevin asked. 

"Press play," Grady said as he carried a huge bowl of popcorn in. Nevin pressed play and the projector whirred to life again.

The green words filled the blackness. Then two voices were heard.

"Trinity," she muttered as she recognized the voice. 

"And the guy is Cypher," Tavis filled in.

"Who?"

Nevin laughed, "She doesn't know who Cypher is. Don't spoil it for her."

"Who are they talking about?"

"Neo…uh…Anderson," Tavis corrected himself.

"Shut up guys, just let her watch it."

"Thanks," she said sarcastically. 

"Lieutenant, you were given specific orders…" 

"He's human, they never listen."

"Recruits do," Grady argued. 

"They're different."

"Are there any agents?" 

"Yeah Trin, three of them."

She watched as Jones started to chase the rebel across the rooftop. "Kill her Jones, kill Jones, get her!"

"He doesn't."

"Shut up Tavis."

"Ug, Anderson," she said as the projection showed his sleeping form. 

"Well this movie is about him," Nevin reminded her. 

Wake up Neo… 

Grady paused it. "Did that happen to you?"

"What?"

"Well, you were going to become a rebel. How did it happen?"

"Not like this."

"She quoted Switch."

"Huh?"

"Nevin, the lady-agent is talking."

"Lady-agent? Whatever. I used to live on the net, used to haunt boards and stuff. Then one day I got this private message on my site's guest book that said. 'Is this the truth or…or wills c real. Find it to find the truth.'"

"Or wills c real?"

"I figured it was some kind of weird joke. I almost deleted it but I was bored so I tried to figure it out."

"Obviously you did, what is it?"

"Or wills c real, Lewis Carroll." 

"Alice in Wonderland. I sent the answer back to whoever it was. Then a FedEx guy showed up with a phone."

"We know the rest."

"We are the first ones who know how you almost become a rebel. We have to tell the world."

"Jonas would know, if he finds out…"

"Then we'll put it on FFW. I doubt he reads all the stuff on there."

"FFW?"

"Fan fiction dot web."

"You're kidding right."

"No, why?" Tavis asked.

"Cause in my world it's fan fiction dot net." 

"Dot net, that is so old," Grady said. 

"Sorry Grady, it can't be 2063 everywhere." 

"I know but still that seems ancient to us." 

"Hey, maybe it's the same interface, or still like it," Nevin suggested as he jumped off the couch and clicked it up on his computer. Taking a swig from his drink that he had left sitting there since dinner he set it down. The other three came up behind him. 

"Damn!" he screamed, "the server's down," getting unreasonably angry he threw his can of drink against the wall, hitting the Spyder full on, the blue, arachnid-shaped device fizzed once and slid down the wall. He stared in horror, "did I just do that?" 

Tavis dove behind the desk and retrieved it; the sticky soda had seeped into and was frying the circuitry. "You little idiot," Tavis screamed as he dropped the dead machine and charged at his friend. Gripping his shoulders, he screamed, "You killed the Spyder!" 

"I didn't mean to," he said as he tried to squirm free. "Honestly." 

Stef swallowed – this was bad, "can't you just buy another one?" 

"Yes, yes we can. Also the moon is made of green cheese, Neo is your older brother and Zion means 'puppy dog'" Grady answered sardonically, he looked at Tavis. "Can I kill him?"

"Go ahead, we'll throw the body in the river." Tavis sounded deadly serious. 

"Why can't you buy a new one? It's just a modem."

"No it's not Stef, it's a Spyder – much more advanced. It took us six months to save up for it, even then we had to borrow money from Tavis' granddad."

"Can you get it fixed?"

"No, this circuitry's completely screwed." 

"Oh hell no, no friggin' way. It can't be wrecked; you have to get me back onto Jonas' server. I cannot get stuck out here."  

"We'll find some way to get you back in."

"You'd better," she threatened, there was no need to add anything to it. They knew exactly what she was capable of. 

"We could try that old modem you've got stuck in the crate."    

"That thing? It runs at 411 kb/s, that is so slow."

"411 kb/s? Shit that's fast." 

"Not out here, Spyders deal in megabytes. What's the fastest modem in your world?"

"Most everybody uses a 56k." That earned gales of laughter from the three fan boys. 

"Man that is so old," Nevin said as he crashed onto the lounge, holding his stomach before it exploded from laughter. 

"So can we use that other modem?"

"We can try, but don't expect any miracles." Nevin slunk out of the room to retrieve the ancient piece of technology.

"I don't belong out here. This is Jonas' world, and for the love of god Carol is out here." 

"I told you didn't I?" Tavis said jumping up and down on the spot. "Caroline Whitehall is Carol Whitman." 

"Maybe he just based her on her." 

"Whitehall?" Stef asked, if anything that was a lame new name.

"His girlfriend. She's on holiday with him." 

"Good. Personally I really don't like being within a light-year of her. Girlfriend?" Stef snorted. "Do you know how unlikely that is? We're just code to him, he's going to use her and delete her or chuck her back into the mainframe. I know Jonas too well." 

"He did make Stevie's file for you," Nevin said quietly as he walked back out with a red circular object with a uni-cord attached. 

"And this is obviously the price, turn my world into a lie."  

Nevin shut his trap and plugged the modem into his computer, resetting the settings and installing the old drivers he waited for it to dial up. Instead of the standard tones or even a recognizable form of them they played out to the tune of 'O Fortuna' 

"I wish my modem did that." 

"56k's don't do that? What sounds do they make?" Tavis asked.

"Didn't you ever listen in school?"

"No, only IT – you were the only one who wanted to take history, we did it cause we're your friends. If they had of taught us about obsolete tech in IT I would have listened but Mrs. Stowe is the worst teacher in history." 

"Obsolete tech?"

"It's not meant as offence. But why are you complaining? You use the agency computers." 

"Is it going to work or not?" 

"Nevin?" Grady asked. 

"No dice, the message board is only halfway through loading. I can't even get Geo-search to run." 

"We'll have to scratch that idea then."

"Well Grady I hope you have a back-up plan." 

"We could take the Spyder to Gadget – he might be able to fix it, he rebuilt my computer twice." 

"Stay out of this Nevin. You're the one who caused this mess in the first place." 

The sharp-featured boy jumped to his feet, his face was beet-red. "You think I did it on purpose or something?" he practically yelled. "I just got angry that the FFW page wasn't working. You think that I could ever mean to screw up this badly?" 

"Ok!" Tavis shouted as the boy's rant got louder and louder. "That doesn't matter now, what matters is that it happened. Jonas is coming back in three weeks, we need to get it sorted out by then." 

"Three weeks? If Gadget can't fix it then we will have to win the lotto or rob a bank or something." 

"How much are they?" 

"Money works differently these days, um…I think it would be the equivalent of two thousand dollars judging by what I know about your time period." 

"Two grand?" 

"No dial-up fees, only an annual fee of one hundred dollars for the satellite access, it's worth it in the long run."

"Ok."

"Plus it lets you hack into the higher security systems."

"Shut up Tavis, I only hack what's worth it. Like JonasLabs." 

"What exactly were you expecting to find when you hacked the server?" 

"Not the source codes, that was the biggest bonus of all time. Trailers, deleted scenes, stuff like that." 

"Deleted scenes?" Stef asked gritting her teeth, counted to ten. "Don't mind me, you'd feel the same way if this happened to you." 

"We didn't expect to find you, or to find out that the Matrix is real, don't scream Tavis, it's getting on my nerves. I mean, how would you feel if you found out that middle-earth was real?" 

Stef smirked and jerked her head at Tavis, "probably act like him." 

"Then you forgive us?"

"Probably, just as long as you get me back on Jonas' server before he finds out. That wouldn't be good for anyone." 

"Don't we know it, Jonas has great PR but there's rumors on street level." 

"Like what?" 

"That anyone who messes with him…disappears. There was this guy, Tim Annerly who kind of turned up dead and he was an old employee."

"He's dead? Cool." 

"How do you know him?" Nevin piped up in a small voice.

"Nevin, I am not talking to you." She said with a glare down at him. 

"Ok Stef." 

"I met him when I was out here the first time. I'm not sorry he's dead." 

"Then there was Phelan Maat…"

"Phelan? What do…he's dead too?"

"Broke right into the heart of Jonas' lab. He was murdered in his jail cell, could be unrelated though." 

"Shit! That was my fault – well Jonas'…but me, he helped me get back home. Shit!" 

"Phelan is Peter," Tavis said with his eyes wide.

"Who?"

"Jonas must use a search and replace program so that every time you say a name from the real world we hear it or see it if it's another person so that the audience doesn't catch on." 

"He's the worst kind of combination, a psychotic ego-manic, uber-genius."   

"Let's go see Gadget before he goes out."

"Who is this guy anyway?" Stef asked as Grady shut the projector down. 

"I'd say Mouse but you wouldn't get that yet. Um…brilliant, scarily so actually. Lives in computers, addicted to the web and can fix almost anything." 

"Except soda-ruined Spyders."

"One more word Nevin and we leave you behind," Grady threatened.

"I'll be good, I promise." 

"Ok, then let's go," Stef said walking toward the door.

"Stop, stop, stop," Grady said grabbing her by her arm. "Not yet, a couple of things first."

"Like what?"

"Backup battery for the holo-disc, I'm not sure how long that one will last. And not wearing just that." 

"What's wrong with my clothes?" 

"We need to hide the disc and we can't do that with what you're wearing. Tavis go grab one of my coats." Tavis nodded and disappeared into Grady's room. 

"From what I know they're lots of holograms out there."

"Yeah…that doesn't mean anything. Holograms are disposable…programs aren't people out here, you get a holographic worker walking along the street and it's not beyond stupid school kids to break their disc."

"Kill them?" 

"Yeah Stef, we don't want that happening to you." 

"Here, this should fit," Tavis, said handing her a gray jacket. Pulling it on she zipped it up, hiding the disc inside. 

Nevin raised his hand, afraid to speak without being asked first. "Yes Nevin?" Grady asked. 

"Uh…there's still one problem."

"Which is?" Stef asked as the short boy rose to his feet.

"Not to sound stupid but you're Stef Mimosa. Lots of people know who you are."   

"I hate to say it but he's right." Stef sighed and looked around, grabbing three items from the table she pulled her hair into an ultra-short ponytail, slipped the sunglasses on and pulled the beanie down.

She was almost unrecognizable, "incognito enough?" 

Nevin nodded, "it should work."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ok, I'll get started on Chapter 3. 


	3. Chap 3

**Title: **Downloaded: Chapter Three

**Author: **Stormhawk

**Rating: **PG

**Notes: **Nope.****

**Word Count: **2596****

**Please Read and Review.**

"I'm impressed, not," Stef scoffed as they stopped outside of a run down warehouse. It was dragging on past midnight now but so far they hadn't run into any trouble. 

"Wait till you see inside, it's not pretty out here but it's beautiful inside. Gadget just hates high rent bills and he got this on the cheap."

"Plus he needs all the space," Nevin piped up quietly.

"For what?"

Grady smiled, "you'll see." Knocking on the door they all stood back and waited. 

And waited. About three minutes later a pair of running footsteps finally approached from the other side, unlocking it the metal door was slid open. 

"Hey guys," Gadget said as he stepped out. "What can I do for…who is that?" He asked upon noticing Stef. 

"Take it off," Tavis suggested so she pulled off the beanie and slipped off the sunglasses. 

"Wow, where did you guys get a hologram of Stef?" 

"I. Am. Not. A. Hologram."

Gadget looked at the trio, "huh?" was his intelligent answer.

Tavis grinned. "She's real, it's all real. It's…" the rest of his sentence was obscured by Stef's hand clamped over his mouth. 

"Don't scream again or I will hurt you."

"The matrix is real…right, ante up – who's the programmer. Grady you did not write anything this good and I doubt that you could have gotten into the JL server so tell me the truth." 

"The programmer is Jonas, can we come in? It's freezing out here."

"Sorry Grady, come in…" Gadget said, "After you tell me the truth." 

"He just did you idiot," Stef said.

"Did she just insult me?"

"Yes and don't talk about me in the third person cause I'm already pissed off." 

Gadget blinked and Grady nodded, the young man made a strange noise and stumbled back before regaining composure, "I am so sorry – come in, come in, come in." He stepped aside and they all walked into the relatively dark warehouse, flicking some switches some fluorescent lights that looked like they hadn't been changed in fifty years flickered on. Elsewhere there were thin tubes of blue and green light illuminating several areas.  

"Now," Gadget said raking his fingers through his shock-green (code green) hair and shaking his head. "The matrix is real?" Just as a precaution he pinched himself.

"Yes," Grady said blandly. "And we need your help." 

He smiled, "I'll do anything." 

Tavis leant over toward Stef, "our obsession is nothing compared to his." 

"And I am extremely proud of it," Gadget said with a smile. "Why do you think my hair is this color." 

"You were in an industrial accident?" Stef asked with a smirk.

"I'm a code addict," he said followed with what sounded like a demented pixie laughing. "Well, the closest I can come."

"He's on the message board, he's got over five thousand posts. Everyone else is pissed cause no one else has more than two thousand."

"And that was what I was doing before you showed up."

"Have you got a Spyder?" Stef asked thinking of something apparently no one had. Then again, she was good at that.

"Nope, why waste the money."

"It's not a waste of money," Nevin objected.

"Then what do you use? Their 411 was useless."

"I use ten 411's networked so it's faster than a Spyder." 

"Well that should work shouldn't it? You could get me back in that way."

"What happened to your Spyder?" Gadget asked and Nevin produced a padded carry bag, unzipping it he handed the ruined piece of technology over to Gadget.

"Who's the moron who did this?" 

Nevin flushed bright pink but the other three pointed anyway. The short boy looked up, "Can you fix it Gad?" 

"What is this?" he asked as he rubbed two sticky fingers together. 

"Sub-T cola." 

"You idiot. You should know it instantly screws the circuitry."

"And if you can't fix it they're going to kill me and dump my body in the river." 

"It's nothing less than you deserve," Stef said coldly.

"I. Didn't. Mean. To. I already feel guilty enough."

"Good. Don't you think that Jonas will figure out that I'm missing? What, am I supposed to knock on his door and tell him that…?" She felt bad for exploding, stopping she held out her hand. "Truce?"

He nodded, "I'm sorry," he mumbled as he shook her hand. Immediately most of the tension flew out of the room. 

"Back on topic, no you can't use my system to hack back in."

"Why not?" Tavis asked.

"Grady will understand this," Gadget said as he put the Spyder on a workbench. "Fine my system is faster than yours but it's like ten hands working to achieve one goal, for major hacks like the JL server you just need one really strong hand, the Spyder connection." 

"Great, any chance in hell you can fix it?"

"For you, my dear agent," Gadget said, bowing low and kissing her hand, "I would turn myself into a snowball and go to hell." 

"He's scaring me," she whispered to the trio then giggled.

"But my lady, I am serious," he rose and placed he Spyder under some kind of scanner, sitting at his computer, he moved his hand over a small mouse-pad sized mat that glowed a strange blue. The screensaver flicked off and the cursor followed the movement of his index finger. 

The wallpaper was a still image of Matrix code. Pausing and looking up at her, "what does the hell does that represent?"

She looked at it. "City street, night, drunk man, quarter moon." Gadget sighed happily then pulled up a diagnostic tool so he could look closer at the Spyder. The scanner the Spyder was under flicked to like and Stef flickered at the same time. 

"Ok, no high voltage for you," Grady said gently pulling her back. "Or there won't be anything left to put on the server. Gadget?"

"Hmm?"

"We're going to use your holo-player."

"Ok," the nerd said – now at work he was completely lost in it. The foursome traipsed downstairs and into another room that had surround sound and a more advanced looking projector. Tavis slipped the disk in and chapter skipped until they were looking at Neo asleep in front of his computer again.

Skipping a minute or so it resumed play when his friends were knocking on the door. 

*****

"Who was that?" 

"Just a fan Carol, no reason to get jealous." 

"I saw the way you looked at her," she said as he opened the door to the room and carried their bags through. 

"I wasn't looking at her that way." 

"Don't cheat on me Jonas." 

_But Carol_, he thought, _you're just a program_. A slow smile spread across his face, turning and locking the door he moved the bags into the next room.

"Don't ignore me." 

"Carol I turn you off as I easily as I can turn you on." And he meant the latter in both ways. Sighing, and knowing both halves of his comment were true she unzipped one of the bags and rummaged around for her bathing suit. No sense in wasting a five-star paradise trapped in a domestic argument that she couldn't win anyway. 

Behind her back he smiled smugly, he loved the power he had over her. But he had a role to play, and he was good at it. Crouching behind her he placed his hands on her thin shoulders, "don't be upset Carol, you know there's no one else but you." 

"Even though I'm a program."

"That doesn't matter to me." _And neither do you, not really anyway – you're just fun to have around. _

She turned and smiled at him, "really?" 

"Yes really," he said as he slid his hands up her thighs and up into her shirt. 

"I forgive you then." 

Two hours later.

Carol was lying in the sun, thanks to all the modifications and inventions Jonas had made she was able to feel the warmth of the sun as clearly as she had been when she had been…

_Been what_? He brain asked her suddenly. Been alive? Been back in the Matrix? Been human? She'd never been human, a fact she was only reminded of everyday. Especially when Jonas would push a cord into the space where her heart would be to top up the battery. At least it was below her skin, the disc system that allowed her to exist out here, it wasn't blatantly obvious like the rest of the holograms out here. 

"Unnatural!" someone screamed. Opening her eyes and pushing her sunglasses up she saw a small group of humans dogging a holo-worker. The unaware waiter was just doing its job by serving drinks. Holding back a shudder she watched.

The humans grabbed the tray from the waiter's hand and threw it aside, the waiter – programmed to ignore persons such as these – simply knelt and starting picking up the shards of glass. 

A tall man kicked the hologram that looked like a twenty-something young man with brown hair in the same outfit as the human workers and he rolled onto his back. The others joined in; some of the patrons got up to do something but were stopped by the tall man's speech.

"They're nothing, it's nothing but a piece of technology, would you be reacting this way if I were beating your toaster?" One of his friends helped him pick up the waiter and together they threw him into the pool. There was a fizz a moment after he hit the water and a small plume of black smoke after he sank. There was no body and his disc sank slowly to the bottom of the pool. 

Carol was scared, for the first time in a very long time she was scared. Out here she was just a hologram, just like the man who had just been murdered. No, maybe it wasn't truly alive like her but it still had a right to live. 

"That's what's going to happen to all of them!" the anti-hologram group shouted as security dragged them away. 

Suddenly, this paradise was a lot less inviting then it had been when they first arrived. Climbing to her feet, she slipped her sandals on and all but ran back to their room. 

Jonas was still lying in the bed, but he had turned the TV on and had ordered a drink. He smiled as she walked in.

"Too hot out there?" he asked with a grin. 

"I want to go home."

"We just got here," he said indignantly as he clicked the TV off.

"I know. Arthur, please, I don't want to stay here." 

"Too many guys staring at you? It's the outfit."

"It's nothing to do with that." Her tone stopped him and for the first time he looked up at her with something that almost approached worry. 

"What is it?" 

"It was one of those anti-hologram groups…it was just a waiter but…it could have been me."

"No, you don't show up like a hologram, I'm not stupid."

"Please can we go?"

"We'll lose the grand deposit. And it means we'll be stuck back in the city instead of out here. Sun, surf, sand, you and me – it sounds like fun doesn't it?" 

"If you don't come with me I'll go by myself." 

"Fine. You can catch the next plane."

"You're not coming with me?"

"I deserve this vacation Carol, I work my ass off everyday, you just laze around." 

"You never had to live my life Jonas, do not judge me!"

"Your dog died when you were four, your cousin at seven. You had your first smoke at twelve, first drink at fifteen. First…close relationship…on your eighteenth birthday, you stayed with him for the next few years, he never popped the question then he left one day, you didn't know it but he'd joined the rebels. Having nothing else to do with your life you started looking around and found the signs that led you to almost become a rebel. Instead you became a recruit, then your little boyfriend shot you – he killed you Carol, just cause you were wearing a suit – he never really cared about you anyway. Then you had the whole back from the grave thing thanks to dear Agent Smith, but you didn't come back right, something was wrong. And it wasn't the system, I've checked that – it was you, you were the one who cracked, none of it was their fault. Then you were really stupid and tried to kill everyone, that didn't work so well cause you got deleted. But that didn't work either so for fifty-four years you were floating around the system, then you woke up and tried to do it all again. That really didn't work, you had enough left of you to imprint your sequel with evil then I brought you out here." 

"Don't I have any secrets?"

"No, not a one."

Carol just stood there, feeling open and almost violated; he had stated her entire life without feeling. "But if you want to go home, that's where we'll go. You can go on a spending spree and I'll have some fun with the simulations."

*****

"I," Stef said through fits of laughter, "am never going to be able to keep a straight face during an interrogation again."  

"Wait until the virus speech later," Grady said a grin, "it's even better."

"Don't you feel bad for laughing at him?" Tavis asked. 

"No, plus he doesn't know I'm laughing at him so it all works out."

"Do you ever want to tell him?" Nevin asked quietly. "About all this?"

"The real, real world? All the time."

"Then why don't you?" Gadget asked as he walked into the room.

"I just don't, I don't know why but I just think it's the right thing to do." 

"How's the Spyder?"

"No dice but I'm open to suggestions."

"No one works well being web deprived, who's up for random posting?" Grady asked.

"What about the movie?"

"It's not going anyway Tav, neither is Stef for a while so let's show her the board. You want to see it?"

"Sure," she agreed and they made their way back upstairs, beyond the few computers that Gadget worked on at once was a room with half a dozen computers in it. Hanging on the wall was another set of ten linked 411 kb/s modems.

"Do you collect those or something?"

"Yes Stef, I do. They are obsolete tech so they're easy to find. I have many other impressive collections if I may say so."

"Only if you stop acting strange when you talk to me."

"It is done. I've got a crate of CD's; no one has used them in twenty years. I've got one hundred and twenty floppy disks, do you have any idea how hard they are to find?"

"I can guess for out here."

"Here we go," Tavis said having pulled up the board. Sitting at the computer next to him she balked at the window in front of her, it wasn't quite the same as what she was used to. The back/forward/home/stop/refresh buttons were on the side and the address bar was down the bottom and they would all hide themselves when not in use. There was no file/edit/view/etc menu. There was a button on the keyboard for that.

Writing the address into the bar she had managed to make stay there by turning the auto hide off she only had to wait a few seconds before the homepage popped up. 

Tavis adopted a Morpheus-like pose, "welcome…to the message board."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hey guys (you know who I'm talking to) I'm going to let them surf around the board for most of the next chapter so I'll need your messages/posts/topic suggestions for Chap 4.

Talk to me on the real message board. 


	4. Message Board 2

Title: Downloaded: Chapter Four  
  
Author: Stormhawk**  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Notes: Not that we are crossing the line into parody or self insertion (that fic is coming soon) but the posts and people of the message board are based on the random personalities of the people on the real ATS message board but they have had their names tweaked.   
  
**BIG thanks to Zane (aka TheRedPony) for helping me to write some of these threads and to Roki who wrote the original anagram thread.  
  
Yes, the spelling mistakes are supposed to be in the threads and posts.   
  
The real message board can be found at Stormhawk.hyperboards2.com feel free to join. Our homepage is geocities.com/agentseries   
  
Word Count: 3390  
  
Please Read and Review.  
  
The layout was scarily similar to the message boards she knew, well whatever worked, worked. The guys busied themselves and let her surf around alone. It was black and green, big surprise.   
  
It was split into sections, random, characters, general, RPG. It was one of a few boards that the trio visited, they didn't really like the official one, the moderators hated off topic posts but they had found this one. Supposedly it was ATS and Animatrix-centric but now it was mostly ATS and the movie.   
  
All the last posts were by some person named Blue Equine. Grady looked at Nevin who were on the computers opposite to Tavis, Gadget and Stef.   
  
"Quadruped's changed his name again."  
  
"Can't horsy-boy stick with one name?"  
  
"Nope, remember the other day when he changed it like four times?"  
  
"Each was a different way to profess his love to Brown."  
  
Stef choked, stood and looked over the monitors at them, "what?!"  
  
"Blue Equine is desperately in love with Agent Brown, we don't understand it either."   
  
Stef slumped back into her chair, "That is the most disturbing thing I have ever heard. I'm going to check out the random board."  
  
"See any 'keep out' on them, take the warning."   
  
"Unless you're a voyeur," Gadget said with an evil grin.   
  
"I am not."  
  
"The enter at your own risk."   
  
Stef smirked and clicked on the link to the random board. The last updated link was 'Evil Koalas'. "What the hell does evil marsupials have to do with the Matrix?"  
  
"You'll get used to it, don't judge this board at face value, randomness is good."  
  
"It's also a by-product of the fact that like a third of the people on here are from Australia."  
  
"Drop bears are evil," Nevin said with a shudder.   
  
Shaking her head she clicked it and started to read.   
  
***  
  
Thread by Three Skitz Jade Angels: Evil Koalas  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angels- The koalas are everywhere, they're coming after you next  
  
L'Tory- Give me that cookie, you've had enough sugar  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angels- it's not the cookie, it's the evil marsupials  
  
Rocki- would you two grow up?  
  
L'Tory- hell no, shut up Rocki  
  
Rocki- *grumbles* *shoots at them, misses*  
  
Thunder Eagle- if you're gonna shoot them, you can at least hit them  
  
Star-slayer- you should take lessons from me  
  
Blue Equine- we can use neo as a target   
  
Star-slayer- no, not my neo! *grabs neo and hugs him*  
  
Thunder Eagle- I'd be more worried about drop bears than evil koalas  
  
Karen Luffer- drop bears?  
  
Thunder Eagle- Yeah, they are the real 'evil koalas'   
  
*****  
  
Thread by Blue Quadruped: Blue's top 15 reasons why I love Agent Brown  
  
***  
  
Stef read through the reason, shaking her head at a lot of them. Blue, whomever he was definitely starting to scare her.  
  
***  
  
L'Tory - How long did it take you to come with this?  
  
Blue Quadruped- Um, 3 days L'T  
  
L'Tory- You are such an Agent Brown freak  
  
Blue Quadruped- Thank you  
  
Underlord D Fonce -Blue you need a Hobby  
  
Blue quadruped -I have a hoby, its being an Agent Brown Fan Boy  
  
***  
  
Clicking on the link at the bottom of the page she clicked over to the next topic.   
  
***  
  
Poll by Star-slayer: Ok So how long do you think it will take until Jones and Greer get together?  
  
***  
  
Pausing and looking at the trio, "Jones and Greer?"  
  
"Just fanfic Stef," Tavis said smoothly. "There's lots of agents fanfics."  
  
"O...K," she said - stranger things did happen. It was just weird to have your life displayed as fiction.  
  
***  
  
Star-slayer- I think its so going to happen this season  
  
L'Tory- *cries* Jones is so cute, I WANT HIM.  
  
Star-slayer- Neo is cute  
  
The very disturbed fairy- OMG STAR! *claws out ears* QUICK WE HAVE TO REPROGRAM HER.  
  
Alloy sin- Ok back to topic. I dont think it will happen until later. I mean their together but not like really together if you know what I mean. Their still all shy and stuff lol.  
  
Thunder Eagle- Guys stop making a mess of my message board, Star no more Neo for you. Ok and I think that its going to take a good while. I dont think they really want the Mainframe to find out about this.  
  
Outgral-Good point Thunder  
  
Muse-*Hugs L'T* You can have Agent Clarke. Feel Better?  
  
L'Tory- NOOOO! He's worse the Agent Brown  
  
Blue quadruped- Ok Now Im offended lol  
  
***  
  
Clicking onto a new topic Stef flushed bright red.  
  
***  
  
Thread: CyberCookie betting pole... Darth and Stef or Stef and Smith?  
  
Underlord D Fonce- No Way Stef would never go out with Smith, they're Just friend  
  
Three Skitz jade angels- What are you Tripping, Smith is the hottest Agent Ever.  
  
Blue quadruped- Is not, Brown is.  
  
Karen Luffer- Brown has the personality of a doornail  
  
Blue quadruped- Be nice he had to go through the first glitch ever by him self, and hes programmed to be coolder. he just needs time. I could warm him up. I agree, Stef and Smith should get together  
  
Underlord D Fonce- No Way Darth is too cute. Besides could you see Smith giving roses and snuggling in bed. *pictures Blue and Brown, lol colers pretty, No grouse stop that!*  
  
Three Skitz jade angels- Who needs roses, when He can say 'Mr Anderson' like he can. QB you are a dirty boy.  
  
Blue quadruped- Cant help it, the Code made me do it.  
  
Ara- Every1 read the new chap of Forever?   
  
L'Tory- I love that, it's the sweetest Stef/Smith out there  
  
Ara- Stef/Smith shipping rules! *runs away to write another chapter*   
  
  
  
***  
  
"This is ridiculous, this cannot be happening." Stef groaned and dropped her head to the desk.   
  
"Which thread are you in?" Grady asked from across from her.   
  
"The one where they're trying to decide whom I've in love with."  
  
"Well who is it?" Gadget asked, "Smith or Darth?"   
  
"I'm not in love with either of them."   
  
"We know you think Darth is cute."  
  
"I do not," she protested.  
  
"It was in the end of FoR, when you were bashing on Hummer's back door."   
  
"Do I have any secrets whatsoever in this world?"  
  
"Not a lot since you joined the agents."   
  
"Great."   
  
"Spill already," Nevin said with a grin. "It's just us. Smith or Darth - or is it someone else that we don't know about?"  
  
"Yeah, I had an affair with Twin One when I was working for Mero, did you know about that?" she asked sardonically, rolling her eyes. "I love Smith, but not like that." She paused, not used to talking about stuff like this.   
  
"Yeah...?" Gadget said.  
  
"Darth is cute," she mumbled.   
  
"Cuter than me?" Nevin squeaked to break the silence that accompanied the admittance of cuteness.   
  
"Oh, no one cuter than you Nev," she said in a talking-to-babies voice. "Hang on, Nat is."   
  
"Great, I lose to a child program."   
  
"But he's very important to the exiles."   
  
"Am I cuter than Nat?" Tavis asked.   
  
"No."  
  
"Am I?" Grady asked.  
  
"No."   
  
"What about me?" Gadget.  
  
"You have green hair Gadget. I need to say no more."  
  
"You just hate me cause I'm green."  
  
"I'm not prejudiced, I don't hate the Grinch."  
  
"The who?" came from all four guys.  
  
"Never mind," she said and clicked to the next topic.  
  
  
  
***  
  
Thread by Rocki: New Smith Plot.  
  
Rocki -I heard something big is coming up with Smith, oh I cant wait  
  
Die Dowji- Oh I heard that too. Smith is the best I cant wait to see it. Whos your fave Rocki?  
  
Jeni- He likes Trinity!  
  
Rocki - Shove it I do not *starts firing his Desert Eagle*  
  
Thunder Eagle- *shoots back* No shooting on the board Rocki!   
  
***  
  
"You guys haven't posted on either of those threads."  
  
"Look at the times, they just came up in the last couple of hours, hours in which we were busy."   
  
"Fair enough Tav."   
  
***  
  
Thread by Alloy Sin: New member  
  
Alloy sin- This is my sister Skitz_ziod   
  
Skitz_zoid- hello  
  
I love agent brown- hello  
  
Skitz_zoid- *whispers* should I be afraid of him?  
  
Blue Equine- nah, I just like to change my name - welcome to the board  
  
Matrixnuts- L'T is the one she has to be afraid of; she's actually Carol Whitman  
  
L'Tory- I am not, Fairy is - look at her avatar, knife and everything  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angel- but ur a blond  
  
L'Tory- *runs after Jade with a knife* oops, did I just write that? Mwhahahahahahaha!  
  
Thunder Eagle- anyway...ignore the carols on this board, HI!  
  
Underlord D Fonce- yeah, greetings  
  
Rocki- what did I miss?  
  
L'Tory- where were you?  
  
Rocki- you hid my uni-cable, I couldn't turn my computer on  
  
Alloy Sin- LOL  
  
Skitz_zoid- I think I'm gonna have fun here  
  
Alloy Sin- just don't let her near any sharp implements, she's got a twin fetish   
  
Skitz_zoid- no I don't, Jonas needs to explore their characters more  
  
Blue Equine- methinks you want to explore the twins a little more  
  
Thunder Eagle- what have I told you about scaring the new board members?  
  
Blue Equine- sorry  
  
Thunder Eagle- that's ok *hug*, don't look at me like that Brown, he's all urs  
  
Underlord D Fonce- if we're all online, why don't we chat instead of post?  
  
Thunder Eagle- told you, you were a genius, none of us thought of that  
  
***  
  
"Everyone's online," Tavis said.   
  
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Nevin said as he clicked over to the chat.   
  
"Can I join up?" Stef asked.   
  
"Hell yeah," Grady said, "We need to get you a w-mail account first."   
  
"Ok."   
  
Grady clicked over to the Geo-search page. "What was your alias?" he asked as he clicked the email icon.   
  
"Unseen spider, but with an underscore and a y in spider."  
  
"Like we spell our Spyder."   
  
"Yeah, my old addy was unseen_spyder@yahoo.com."   
  
"Now it's unseen_spyder@geo-search.web."   
  
Clicking the signup she registered with that email, and the user name of the same.   
  
***  
  
Chat: 24 September 2063, 1.14am  
  
The very disturbed fairy (joins)  
  
The very disturbed fairy- what we talking about?  
  
Blue Equine- nothing, this chat is dead  
  
The very disturbed fairy- what's ur first name?  
  
Blue Equine- why should I tell u?  
  
The very disturbed fairy- I'm not a stalker, just tell me or I'm going random on the threads  
  
Thunder Eagle- you do that fairy  
  
L'Tory- my name's...I'll tell  
  
The very disturbed fairy- then tell already  
  
L'Tory- ask nicely  
  
Blue Equine- tell L'T or I'm joining fairy back on the board  
  
L'Tory- it's Kristen   
  
Blue Equine- you ain't going stalker are you?  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angels- don't quote JTK  
  
Blue Equine- why not?   
  
Alloy Sin- my name's...umm...I forget  
  
A Grade Above- mine's Grady  
  
Vienn- myn's Nevin, just rearrange Vienn  
  
Unseen_Spyder- that's lame Nev  
  
Blue Equine- hey Unseen, where'd you come from?  
  
Unseen_Spyder- I'm new  
  
Blue Equine- ASL & real name  
  
Unseen_Spyder- 23, F, (usually) the Matrix, Stef  
  
***  
  
"What are you doing Stef?" Grady asked.  
  
"I'm not ashamed of who I am. What are the odds of Jonas finding this board?"  
  
***  
  
Thunder Eagle- great sense of humor, I think you'll fit in well around here  
  
Unseen_Spyder- I wasn't joking  
  
Blue Equine- one delusional per board, and I already have that job. Who's next?  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angel- ME! (Hey Unseen) My name's Kyleen   
  
Blue Equine- I miss agent Brown  
  
Underlord D Fonce- where'd he go?  
  
Blue Equine- I don't know  
  
Rocki- I kidnapped him! I will return him for a crate of cookies...and one muffin  
  
Blue Equine- *requires stuff to appear next to the kidnapper* now give me back my agent!  
  
Rocki- *shifts brown back 2 his master* *shakes head, bites cookie*  
  
Blue Equine- haha! Those are poison  
  
Rocki- ahhhhh! *falls unconscious*  
  
L'Tory- *pokes bro with a stick* YAY! He's finally dead!!!!  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angels- YAY! *dances on Rocki's grave*  
  
Rocki- I'm not dead, just sick  
  
Matrixnuts- *shoots rocki* now stay dead!  
  
Blue Equine- *plays with Brown's buttons*  
  
Unseen_Spyder- how can u like Brown? That's sick  
  
Blue Equine- then you have no taste *hugs brown*  
  
Unseen_Spyder- but he's the world's biggest jerk  
  
Skitz_zoid- and you know him personally?  
  
Unseen_Spyder- sure I do  
  
Thunder Eagle- moving right along, and away from the delusional...try to guess my name...  
  
Blue Equine- *ties various agents to poles*  
  
L'Tory- stop that!  
  
Underlord D Fonce - I know ur name Thunder  
  
Thunder Eagle- keep it down Fonce, I know ur name too   
  
Blue Equine- hey 'Stef' is Brown really that mean?  
  
Unseen_Spyder- he's just a jerk with the emotional maturity of a cardboard box   
  
Blue Equine- emotions aren't important, getting him out of his suit is  
  
Unseen_Spyder- *runs away to puke*  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angels- I'm with her, can we talk about something besides horsy-boy and his brown obsession  
  
Blue Equine- I'm obsessed and I'm proud of it  
  
A Grade Above- every1 seen Frames of Reference?  
  
Rocki- I'm almost finished it, don't tell me how it ends  
  
L'Tory- I've seen it, so has Jade   
  
Rocki- you should have let me watch it with you, but now I have to post and watch at the same time  
  
Vienn- where you up to?  
  
Rocki- Stef is asking Crete for a favor  
  
Unseen_Spyder- Jonas is an uber-jerk  
  
Underlord D Fonce- how did Jonas get into this convo?   
  
Unseen_Spyder- 'crete' is Jonas  
  
Thunder Eagle- wouldn't that kind of be like the ultimate Gary-Stu?   
  
Underlord D Fonce- I still want to change it to Jonnie-Lou  
  
Thunder Eagle- can't always have what you want Fonce  
  
Underlord D Fonce- I know, shame though  
  
Blue Equine- hey 'Stef' how long since the Exodus crew got plugged in?   
  
L'Tory- Stop encouraging her, we have enough problems with your delusions  
  
Unseen_Spyder- about a week and a half   
  
Blue Equine- ok  
  
Rocki- *leaves to watch it in peace* IBB when it finishes   
  
***  
  
Stef left the board to surf around on FFW but the trio plus Gadget stayed on the board looking at various threads.  
  
***  
  
Thread by Rocki: Who they really are...  
  
Rocki- i found some things out. u know how neo is a anagram of one?  
  
here are some anagrams of other characters  
  
morpheus:he Mr soup!  
  
trinity: Tiny rit (is that like tiny rat?)  
  
Agent: a gent  
  
agent smith:a men tights or magnet this( switch the s and the t)  
  
agent brown: grab no newt  
  
agent jones: jane gets on (whos jane?)  
  
stef: fest  
  
stevie: sei vet( is there a hidden messege)  
  
carol: coral  
  
jonas: jason  
  
i got heaps mor if you want a list of anagrams for you name just ask  
  
Rocki: I ROCK  
  
Thunder Eagle- LOL these are great  
  
Rocki- why thank you 'under the gale'   
  
Thunder Eagle- where you thinking about that or did you just come up with it?  
  
Rocki- just now, under 12 seconds - beat that Stef!  
  
Blue Equine- do me do me do me!  
  
Underlord D Fonce- me too   
  
Rocki- i blue queen = BE  
  
Blue Equine- yay! I'm royalty, wait a minute...  
  
***  
  
Thread by Alloy Sin: the koalas are out to get you  
  
Alloy Sin- run for your lives! It's the rabid koalas bent on killing all random board members!  
  
Skitz_zoid- and I control them, they are MYN!   
  
Blue Equine- *hides self in brown's jacket* hey, this is nice...  
  
Alloy Sin- they're after ME! *requires bazooka* it didn't work! HELP!  
  
L'Tory- I'll help you...he, he, he...  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angels- no one wants ur help carol  
  
The very disturbed fairy- I AM CAROL WHITMAN! Mwhahahahaha   
  
Thunder Eagle- I know her! She is Whitman! But rabid koalas are scarier! AHHHHHHHH, a koala   
  
Bloodthirsty koala (formerly MatrixNuts) KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!   
  
Rocki- *shoots at it*  
  
Bloodthirsty koala (formerly MatrixNuts) *turns to source of shooting, unharmed and goes after the would-be assassin*  
  
Rocki- I'm gonna die now *dies in horrible, koala induced death*  
  
L'Tory- I'm the only one allowed to kill my brother *requires rabid kangaroo army to attack the programmed koalas*  
  
Ara- what if Smith had to rescue Stef from a koala, that would be an excuse for a sweet scene  
  
Thunder Eagle- you are ruining this thread! *shoots ara and runs from the koalas*  
  
Underlord D Fonce- *currently hidden in a koala-proof bunker*  
  
A grade above- isn't it boring in there?   
  
Underlord D Fonce- nah, I'm writing a Stef/Greer fic   
  
System Tavis- u read Encryption?   
  
Underlord D Fonce- It's my fav S/G shipping fic  
  
Ara- it's not shipping, S/S is shipping, there is not enough S/S shipping  
  
System Tavis- haven't u written like twenty of them?  
  
Ara- 16, but I have plans for more - I figure that sooner or later Jonas will run out of ideas and go looking for plots on FFW, then he'll see my stories and turn it into canon   
  
Alloy Sin- KOALA!   
  
System Tavis- they are well written but I think S/G is a better FF pairing cause it's J/G in canon   
  
Underlord D Fonce- I like the J/G pairing, it just fits so well  
  
Ara- yeah, it's a good relationship  
  
Alloy Sin- KOALA!...?  
  
Skitz_zoid- the koalas have turned on me! Help!  
  
Blue Equine- it's better than some of those weird 1shot slash pieces you get  
  
Ara- like what?  
  
Blue Equine- Smith/Morph Smith/Neo Neo/Morph Trin/Morph Stef/Neo Stef/Hummer Hummer/agent-of-your-choice Mero/any other character   
  
Thunder Eagle- you scare me  
  
Blue Equine- I wasn't finished, then you get the SI or OC plots   
  
L'Tory- do you live on FFW?  
  
Blue Equine- and this board yes, I am jacked in like ten hours a day. The other 14 I work for eight hours, travel for one, sleep for three and use the other two however I want  
  
The very disturbed fairy- and I thought I was bad   
  
Blue Equine- you are, I'm just worse   
  
Alloy Sin- koala?  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angels- the koalas have left the board Alloy, but not forever  
  
Underlord D Fonce- KOALA!  
  
Three Skitz Jade Angels- see what I mean?   
  
*****  
  
The fanboys posted for another hour or two until it was about three in the morning and they all grew tired. Gadget had already said goodnight about half an hour before that.   
  
Used to them staying the night, there was a spare room with three bunks in it.   
  
"Night Stef," all three said before slogging down to the room. Stef found some headphones and found a net radio station that played the current top forty, appropriately enough top40.web, and clicked back over to FFW.   
  
Reading through some Matrix/ATS fanfics and some other 'ancient' categories of books and movies from her time she realized that there was something she wanted to do. And now that she was free for a while she could do it without resorting to asking Jonas.   
  
Opening up a new browser, she found after a small search the web page she was looking for. Records of births, deaths and marriages. (Gov.us/bdm) and opened up the database. This being public information there was no need to hack the system.   
  
As she opened the database she wondered if she would regret this decision. Sometimes knowing everything, or even one piece of information could change your life. Several simple facts had turned her life upside down; that the world was nothing more than a simulation and that that simulation was within another and there was another that no one else knew about were on the top of her list.  
  
~ ~ I hate Serica, the real, real you - the original, the person you are based on.  
  
Serica Maat, Phelan's sister. She just had to know. Typing that name into the database she waited a few seconds until one link came up. Maat, Serica. She clicked it.   
  
The photo couldn't lie. Shaking her head, she stared at the real version of herself. Serica Maat was the person on whom she was based, Phelan's sister and Jonas' ex-girlfriend. There were several differences, Serica had blue-green eyes and darker hair but besides that it was almost like looking in a mirror.   
  
It wasn't surprising in any way shape or form; it just made her think about something that usually didn't bother her. Exactly how much of her was Stef and how much had Jonas programmed, she liked to think none but she had to wonder.   
  
She closed the window without a second thought, she had found what she was looking for now she could relax. Only she couldn't, not really.   
  
The problem remained, how was she to get back onto Jonas' server without him discovering that she had been out in the first place.   
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Ok, not much happened in that chapter but I promise plot development in the next one.   
  
I dare you to email Stef. (yahoo, not geo-search) I just dare you  
  
To you people on the board, mwhahahaahahaha (you know what I'm talking about) 


	5. Message Board 1

**Title**: Downloaded: Chapter Four

**Author:** Stormhawk**

**Rating:** PG

**Notes:** Not that we are crossing the line into parody or self insertion (that fic is coming soon) but the posts and people of the message board are based on the random personalities of the people on the real ATS message board but they have had their names tweaked. 

**BIG thanks to Zane (aka TheRedPony) for helping me to write some of these threads and to Roki who wrote the original anagram thread.

Yes, the spelling mistakes are supposed to be in the threads and posts. 

The real message board can be found at Stormhawk.hyperboards2.com feel free to join. Our homepage is , knife and everything

Three Skitz Jade Angel- but ur a blond

L'Tory- *runs after Jade with a knife* oops, did I just write that? Mwhahahahahahaha!

Thunder Eagle- anyway…ignore the carols on this board, HI!

Underlord D Fonce- yeah, greetings

Rocki- what did I miss?

L'Tory- where were you?

Rocki- you hid my uni-cable, I couldn't turn my computer on

Alloy Sin- LOL

Skitz_zoid- I think I'm gonna have fun here

Alloy Sin- just don't let her near any sharp implements, she's got a twin fetish 

Skitz_zoid- no I don't, Jonas needs to explore their characters more

Blue Equine- methinks you want to explore the twins a little more

Thunder Eagle- what have I told you about scaring the new board members?

Blue Equine- sorry

Thunder Eagle- that's ok *hug*, don't look at me like that Brown, he's all urs

Underlord D Fonce- if we're all online, why don't we chat instead of post?

Thunder Eagle- told you, you were a genius, none of us thought of that

***

"Everyone's online," Tavis said. 

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Nevin said as he clicked over to the chat. 

"Can I join up?" Stef asked. 

"Hell yeah," Grady said, "We need to get you a w-mail account first." 

"Ok." 

Grady clicked over to the Geo-search page. "What was your alias?" he asked as he clicked the email icon. 

"Unseen spider, but with an underscore and a y in spider."

"Like we spell our Spyder." 

"Yeah, my old addy was unseen_spyder@yahoo.com." 

"Now it's unseen_spyder@geo-search.web." 

Clicking the signup she registered with that email, and the user name of the same. 

***

Chat: 24 September 2063, 1.14am

The very disturbed fairy (joins)

The very disturbed fairy- what we talking about?

Blue Equine- nothing, this chat is dead

The very disturbed fairy- what's ur first name?

Blue Equine- why should I tell u?

The very disturbed fairy- I'm not a stalker, just tell me or I'm going random on the threads

Thunder Eagle- you do that fairy

L'Tory- my name's…I'll tell

The very disturbed fairy- then tell already

L'Tory- ask nicely

Blue Equine- tell L'T or I'm joining fairy back on the board

L'Tory- it's Kristen 

Blue Equine- you ain't going stalker are you?

Three Skitz Jade Angels- don't quote JTK

Blue Equine- why not? 

Alloy Sin- my name's…umm…I forget

A Grade Above- mine's Grady

Vienn- myn's Nevin, just rearrange Vienn

Unseen_Spyder- that's lame Nev

Blue Equine- hey Unseen, where'd you come from?

Unseen_Spyder- I'm new

Blue Equine- ASL & real name

Unseen_Spyder- 23, F, (usually) the Matrix, Stef

***

"What are you doing Stef?" Grady asked.

"I'm not ashamed of who I am. What are the odds of Jonas finding this board?"

***

Thunder Eagle- great sense of humor, I think you'll fit in well around here

Unseen_Spyder- I wasn't joking

Blue Equine- one delusional per board, and I already have that job. Who's next?

Three Skitz Jade Angel- ME! (Hey Unseen) My name's Kyleen 

Blue Equine- I miss agent Brown

Underlord D Fonce- where'd he go?

Blue Equine- I don't know

Rocki- I kidnapped him! I will return him for a crate of cookies…and one muffin

Blue Equine- *requires stuff to appear next to the kidnapper* now give me back my agent!

Rocki- *shifts brown back 2 his master* *shakes head, bites cookie*

Blue Equine- haha! Those are poison

Rocki- ahhhhh! *falls unconscious*

L'Tory- *pokes bro with a stick* YAY! He's finally dead!!!!

Three Skitz Jade Angels- YAY! *dances on Rocki's grave*

Rocki- I'm not dead, just sick

Matrixnuts- *shoots rocki* now stay dead!

Blue Equine- *plays with Brown's buttons*

Unseen_Spyder- how can u like Brown? That's sick

Blue Equine- then you have no taste *hugs brown*

Unseen_Spyder- but he's the world's biggest jerk

Skitz_zoid- and you know him personally?

Unseen_Spyder- sure I do

Thunder Eagle- moving right along, and away from the delusional…try to guess my name…

Blue Equine- *ties various agents to poles*

L'Tory- stop that!

Underlord D Fonce – I know ur name Thunder

Thunder Eagle- keep it down Fonce, I know ur name too 

Blue Equine- hey 'Stef' is Brown really that mean?

Unseen_Spyder- he's just a jerk with the emotional maturity of a cardboard box 

Blue Equine- emotions aren't important, getting him out of his suit is

Unseen_Spyder- *runs away to puke*

Three Skitz Jade Angels- I'm with her, can we talk about something besides horsy-boy and his brown obsession

Blue Equine- I'm obsessed and I'm proud of it

A Grade Above- every1 seen Frames of Reference?

Rocki- I'm almost finished it, don't tell me how it ends

L'Tory- I've seen it, so has Jade 

Rocki- you should have let me watch it with you, but now I have to post and watch at the same time

Vienn- where you up to?

Rocki- Stef is asking Crete for a favor

Unseen_Spyder- Jonas is an uber-jerk

Underlord D Fonce- how did Jonas get into this convo? 

Unseen_Spyder- 'crete' is Jonas

Thunder Eagle- wouldn't that kind of be like the ultimate Gary-Stu? 

Underlord D Fonce- I still want to change it to Jonnie-Lou

Thunder Eagle- can't always have what you want Fonce

Underlord D Fonce- I know, shame though

Blue Equine- hey 'Stef' how long since the Exodus crew got plugged in? 

L'Tory- Stop encouraging her, we have enough problems with your delusions

Unseen_Spyder- about a week and a half 

Blue Equine- ok

Rocki- *leaves to watch it in peace* IBB when it finishes 

***

Stef left the board to surf around on FFW but the trio plus Gadget stayed on the board looking at various threads.


	6. Chapter 5

**Title**: Downloaded: Chapter Five

**Author:** Stormhawk

**Rating:** PG

**Notes:** To Star: I'm sorry for forgetting you in the last chapter so here you are. 

VWS belongs to Mordax. 

**Word Count:** 2428

**Please Read and Review.**

Going back to the message board she only found one person still on there. Star-slayer. 

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – What u doing up so early?

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – I don't sleep

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – everyone sleeps unseen 

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – I don't 

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – come on, are you still pretending to be the real Stef? 

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – I am the real Stef, and Jonas is Crete 

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – Jonas? Right, he's too nice a guy

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – that's only his PR, how can I prove it?

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – I guess you can't

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – can you just believe me?

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – if you tell me one thing

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – what? 

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – how come smith didn't get deleted for trying to overload himself? It wasn't like 'you' or Jones cause you had previous access leading to an addiction, he was doing it purposely  

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – you had to bring that up didn't you? 

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – ha! You don't have an answer

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – I do, I just don't like to think about Smith trying to kill himself  

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – well? What is it?

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – Jones' report actually saved the need to lie about it 

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – do continue 

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – it had it listed as a glitch, it said smith was accessing it and it faulted and started pumping the code into him and he couldn't control it. Well, basically that in more tech terms of course

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – ok, brownie points for originality 

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – you believe me now? 

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – I think I do

(IM) Unseen_Spyder to Star-Slayer – cool  

(IM) Star-Slayer to Unseen_Spyder – night Stef, hope you're still around tomorrow 

Stef smiled as Star-slayer signed off so she clicked back over to FFW. Leaving aside the fact that these stories were about people and events she knew some of them were pretty good. 

Gadget was the first one up, rising about seven am, bidding his computer a good morning, he walked past the computer room once. Pausing and looking at Stef he shook his head and walked down to his kitchen. Coming back up the stairs to his own computer he sat down and dialed up all ten of his modems to check his email. 

"Morning Gadget." 

"It is pointless bidding morning to someone who isn't there. You will disappear once the coffee hits my brain." He said turning and smiling. 

"Have you forgotten everything that happened last night?" 

"Kind of, my recall doesn't work well until it's loaded with caffeine." He sipped at his coffee and waited for the 'figment' to disappear. Chuckling nervously, he sculled half the cup. 

"Why haven't you gone yet?" 

"Good morning Gadget, my name is Stef…"

"I know who you are."

"Remember I turned up here with the trio last night?" 

"Grady program you? Better than some of his other projects."

"No, I came of Jonas' server. Even Anne's brain works better than yours this early in the morning." 

Cautiously, Gadget reached out and poked her arm. "You're real, oh crap. I am talking to a fictional character." 

"I am not a fictional character!" Stef snapped, shoving him backward in his chair. His arm flew up and the coffee came out of his cup, hitting her fully in the chest. "Shit!"

"Are you burnt?" he asked as she ripped off the jacket. Most of the liquid had been absorbed with the material. The disc, however still looked ominously wet. "That's not good. That is so not good." The disc made a strange sound. 

"Fix it greenie, fix it." She said as she dropped the jacket to the floor. 

"Just stand still. Grady! Tavis! Nevin!" he called toward the spare room. Wiping some of the droplets off it, the disc made another whining noise as the trio ran tiredly up the stairs. 

"Please tell me you can fix this," she said with a pleading look at Grady. 

"Coffee?" he asked looking down at the cup on the metal mesh floor, "How much got in there?" 

"A few drops."

"Gadget did you do this?" Nevin asked. 

"You know how my brain doesn't function well in the morning."

"That's your own fault, you knew Tetra-tech would mess with you some way or other."

"What's that?" Stef asked, trying to concentrate on something other than the fact that the disc had coffee in it. 

"A drug. It makes your brain process at twice normal speed. He was an addict."  

"I see." 

"It wasn't supposed to have after effects like this," he said as he collapsed down in his chair. 

"It's a black market, highly illegal drug Gad," Tavis argued, "what the hell did you expect would happen?" 

"I needed it at the time." Gadget said looking up at Grady who was bending down, inspecting the disc closely. "Is it wrecked?" 

"I don't…" he started as it made a small pop. "I've got to open it up. It has to dry out." Grabbing a small screwdriver from the table he flicked open the outer casing and exposed the insides to the open air. 

"I'll turn the scanner on, maybe it can see if there's anything wrong…" Gadget said as he flicked on the scanner. 

"Don't!" Nevin yelped but it was too late. The high voltage caused a small arc of electricity in the disc and Stef disappeared. Grady jerked his hand to avoid electrocution and sent it flying. It landed behind Gadget's central computer. 

The quartet was silent for a few moments. "Oh shit," Gadget finally. "I killed her." 

"I'm not dead," a severely pissed voice said. "Just all four of you stay exactly where you are." 

"What's wrong?" Grady said taking a step closer. 

"I said don't move Grady. Chuck me your shirt please." 

"You can have mine," Gadget said peeling off his pajama top and throwing it over the top of the counter. "Why do you need a shirt?"

"Don't ask any more questions and toss me some pants," Stef asked, humiliated. The surge of current combined with the coffee damage has deleted certain things. Namely, her clothes. Also, she had a lock of long black hair hanging over her face. It had screwed somewhat with her program, but it could have been a lot worse. 

Gadget dropped his pants and threw them over to her. That left him standing in boxer shorts with Matrix code all over them. The trio sniggered and waited for Stef to pull the borrowed clothes on. Standing and tucking the new hair behind her right ear she gave a weak smirk. "Morning." 

"Can I be excused please?" Gadget asked, "I'm cold."

"So that's why you're blue and green. Go." 

"Give me a look at the disc," Grady said as Gadget ran back to his room. She pulled it out from the shirt. He nodded and clicked the outer casing closed. "It's fine. And so are you, you could have extra arms or something right now."

"At least I wouldn't have been naked." All three blushed and tried to look away. "Grow up," she said with a groan. 

"I apologize for the three of us," Tavis said. "But we are breathing males and ATS fans. We have all spent a fair to decent amount of time looking at Agent Honey fanart and screen captures."

"VWS?"  

"It's a real game out here. It's got a huge fanbase." 

"I like that game." 

"So does everyone else who can appreciate parody," Gadget said climbing back up the stairs. "My brain is now functioning." 

"Good," Stef commented but took a step away from him anyway. 

"What are we doing today?" Nevin asked as they walked to the kitchen.

"We need to get our hands on a Spyder," Tavis said. "Simple as that." 

"Well, you can't scab the money from me for two reasons, one I don't have that much and what I do has to last me for two weeks." Gadget said as he threw some instant French toast into his own Nuke1500. 

"We can't have more than four hundred total," Tavis said. "And that includes the money hidden under Nevin's mattress."

"How do you know about that?" 

"We all know about your money Nev," Grady said as he poured a glass of blue milk. "You count it every other week." 

"If I may ask," Stef said as she stared at the milk. "Why is it blue?" 

"Well it's not copying Smurf-boy, it's GE milk."

"Genetically enhanced?"

"Nope, engineered," Nevin said with a smile. 

"Here we go," Tavis said shaking his head. 

"The cows this milk came from are grown in labs, specifically engineered to produce milk with lots of vitamins in it. Especially those that you didn't used to find in milk. Drink enough of this and you don't have to take iron, vitamins A, B, C, D, E or calcium. It's perfect. Blue is the standard color and it comes in all the best flavors."

"You know this how exactly?"

"My granddad worked on the initial project."

"Cool." 

"That still doesn't solve the original problem," Tavis said. "We still need a Spyder." 

"We don't have to figure that out today Tav," Grady said. "Jonas ain't due back for at least three weeks." 

"And if you want to go out I have some clothes that would probably fit you. And that don't look like they haven't been washed in three days." 

"Thanks Gadget." 

The green-haired young man smiled. "They're even girl's clothes." The other four stopped and looked at him. 

"What are you doing with girl's clothes Gad?" Nevin asked. 

"My sister left them here the last time she was in town. Black pants, flare shirt, even a pair of shoes I think."

"You want to see the outside world?" Tavis asked. 

"Sure, why not?" 

"Can we finish the movie first?" Nevin asked. "I want to see her watch the virus speech." 

"Is that ok?" 

"Yeah," she said with a nod. The four persons capable of eating finished preparing their breakfasts and everyone helped carry everything into the room with the holo-player. Gadget pulled a small table from the corner so that there was space to put the foodstuffs down as Nevin popped the movie in. 

Chapter skipping until the place they had left off they watched on as Anderson woke up in the real world and proceeded to be taught by the rest of the Nebuchadnezzar crew. Stef was getting twitchy with all the rebel-centric-ness until Cypher was in the restaurant talking to Smith. 

"Oh, ok. So that's who he is," Stef said nodding in understanding.

"Who?" 

"When the Exodus crew first told us they wanted to get plugged in Smith made this comment about this other guy who wanted the same thing. I'm guessing this doesn't go well."

"Depends who's side your on," Tavis said. 

"Rebel-lover," Nevin said smacking him over the head with a pillow. 

"Nope, just a Trinity-fan boy." 

"You are so sappy Tav," Grady said. "Half the stories in your favs list on FFW are T/N shipping. In present company I won't mention what the others are."

"Spill it Grady," Stef said. "I was on FFW all night, I'm not hidden from the truth." 

"S/G shipping." 

"Be fair Grade, there's only three of those. And there's only five T/N fics." 

"I never realized guys read so much soppy fanfic." 

"Don't mistake me for a wimp please Stef, yes they are shipping but there is major plot and fights and stuff in them as well." 

"That makes all the difference doesn't it?" 

"Yes, it does." 

"Encryption doesn't have that much plot to it. Couple of cool fights though."

"You…read Encryption?" Tavis said with a smirk on his face. "Ok, that's just weird." 

"You read a shipping fic about yourself?" Gadget asked. 

"I had nothing to do for a few hours. I read a few stories. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Probably not, but since nothing like this has ever happened before who knows?"    

***

"YAY!" Stef yelled jubilantly as Smith shot Anderson. "Die Neo die," she chanted as the 'one' fell to the floor of the old hotel. 

"He comes back to life," Tavis said.

"I kind of guessed that, but it's still fun to see him dead. Damn," she commented as he rose from the dead. 

"We can stop it there," Grady said. 

"Why?" 

"Unless you want to see Smith get all explodified."

"Ok," she relented. "Don't need to see that."  

"Ok, where are we going shopping?" Nevin asked as he ate a cold square of toast. 

"How about the mall on eighth?" 

"Sounds good." 

"Come on Stef, I'll show where my sis' clothes are." 

The clothes were in yet another of Gadget's spare rooms, the converted warehouse seemed to be full of them. The pants and shoes were normal enough; it was the flare shirt that impressed her. It was a simply cut black shirt of, curved neck and one long black sleeve. The other sleeve was the definitive feature however. Silken, it was colored and patterned, this particular one was black and gold, and it panned out to a wide but manageable width at wrist-length. 

And they fit perfectly. Stepping out of the room she was met by four looks of approval. She tried to tuck the disc into the shirt but it was simply too chunky. 

"Can't leave it out," Grady said simply. "Then everyone would immediately recognize you as a hologram." 

"Well what do you suggest?" 

"Another jacket?" Tavis suggested.

"No way, it's not that hot out. It'll be too obvious." 

"Can't I stick it in a bag or something?" 

"No, it has to be able to sense you from within a couple of centimeters so it can keep the project stable." A smiled spread over Grady's face, "I think I've got it." Walking over to her and stretching out the metallic blue wire that it was attached to he slipped it past her shoulders and down to her stomach. 

"Pull your shirt up a little," he asked. She did as she was asked and he let it rest flush against the side of her stomach, with the cord around her back. Pulling the shirt back into place. "Fixed." 

"I would have paid money to do that," Nevin said wistfully, Tavis smirked and slapped him on the back of the head.  

"Well let's go," Gadget said. "Can I just check the board first?"

"You are impossible Gad. Five minutes." 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ok, this was going to be longer but I was bad and cut it short. Don't worry, I'm working on chap six right now. 


	7. Legind and Ruin

**Title**: Downloaded: Chapter Six

**Author:** Stormhawk

**Rating:** PG

**Notes:** Don't think so

**Word Count:** 3145

**Please Read and Review.**

Gadget spent two minutes on the computer before realizing that he was going to go to the mall with a not-so-fictional fictional character and that that was much cooler than a message board dedicated to her universe. 

They walked about ten blocks to the mall, which had an open plan, and a Plexiglas roof to allow the sunshine in but not the cold wind or rain. On the way there Stef had put her borrowed sunglasses back on so she was harder to recognize, and she was tempted to cut her new hair off because it kept falling over her face, no matter how many times she tucked it behind her ear. 

The widespread use of holograms were more apparent in the daytime, everyone from shop assistants to babysitters were of a photonic nature. And none of them were accorded the least bit of respect by anyone other than their owners. All had their discs displayed out in the open, as if it was some sign of their status. A few that the guys pointed out as being newer or more expensive models had internal discs, that allowed them to seem more human-like but had markings out in the open so that there was no confusion. 

Subconsciously, she put her hand down on her own disc. Under the flare shirt it was nearly invisible and their reasoning worked that anyone else who saw something under there would assume it to be a small personal computer or music player. CD's being a thing of the past all music was no on datacards, and in a format, somewhat similar to Mp3, though much more advanced. An average disc could hold fifty hours worth of music. And with many players equipped with solar power sources, it meant that it rarely needed maintenance. And if a person was sick of their play list, they could easily tune to a web station, if their player was web-enabled (though those particular players cost more). 

"So where are we going?" Stef asked the guys as she looked around at the people. They wore brightly colored clothes, a few were very somberly dressed, and some had piercings that looked electronic. Flare shirts were popular, so she didn't stick out at all. 

"The Rim," Grady said. "I have a feeling you'll like it." The Rim was at the other end of the mall and it took about five minutes to walk up there. 

"Whoa," was the first thing Stef said upon seeing The Rim. First of all, the place was huge, a small set of stairs led up to it where it had it's own floor/wing of the mall. Second of all, the first thing she saw was a hologram advertising The Matrix (available to buy in two month's time) and as they entered she saw that it was actually several different places in one. It was a combination Internet café/arcade/comic store and had all of the Matrix/ATS merchandise available. 

"You like?" Grady asked. "We spend a great deal of time here." 

"I used to work here," Gadget said. "But they fired me." 

"Programs are people too dude," a familiar voice said from behind her. Turning and half-expecting to see Hummer she saw a teenage guy looking at a talking t-shirt that had the hippy-surfer's likeness on it. Taking her time, she browsed through all the merchandise. 

There were the various 'episodes' of ATS available to buy, or in a box set. T-Shirts, some that talked, some that had moving images on them, and others that were relatively normal. Suits and other costumes like the ones the rebels wore, sunglasses from both sides of the war. Soft, plush chibi-versions of her and her friends, action figures that could interact with each other. Graphic novel adaptations of the stories, posters, everything a fan could want. The same range was available for VWS. 

"Guys, look what's on," Nevin said holding up a flyer. It was a session flyer for the cinemas on the level below them. 

"What?" Tavis asked as he looked at a blue tee that exclaimed 'Exiles rule!" 

"The Hobbit, can we see it again?" 

"We saw it like thirteen times in the original run." Grady pointed out.

"We weren't alive during the original run," Tavis said swiftly.

"I meant the holo-cinema adaptation." 

"The Hobbit?" Stef asked. "That actually happened?" 

"Yeah," Grady said. "Hasn't it happened in your world yet?" 

"Our worlds aren't exactly the same. I mean, it's not like going back into the past or anything. Near as I can figure, Jonas copied and pasted your history into the original program and let it go at its own pace, just keeping certain events the same, like the wars and such." 

"It's only three bucks," Nevin said. 

"I'm with him," Stef said. "I wanna see it."

"Ok," Grady relented, and pointed out the way to the cinema. But when they got there, however, they were turned away because of a problem with the holo-systems. 

"This sucks," Stef said and Nevin just had to agree with her. 

"Let's reduce this place to a pile of rubble," he suggested with an evil glint in his eye. 

"I told you he needed anger management," Grady said to Tavis as their friend started planning out where he would need to place the explosives. 

"Don't you guys have it on card anyway?" Gadget pointed out. 

"Hey guys," a voice said from behind them. "What you doing here?" 

"Hey Legind," Grady said as all four guys bowed to a girl about their age with short black and blond hair, green-framed oval glasses, black clothes and a necklace with a large orange stone hanging from it. "Why have you chosen to grace us with your presence?" 

"Me? Be here because of you lowly beings? I came for the cinema."

"What are you working on?" 

"The adaptation for 'Lies', who's your friend?" she said looking at Stef. 

"I'm Stef." 

"Yeah, and I'm Greer."

"No you're not." 

"That was my point," she said with a smirk. 

"Her name is really Stef," Grady said. 

"Oh – sorry, I'm used to people saying stuff like that." 

"Why?" 

Legind looked in horror at the guys, "doesn't she know who I am?"

Stef was confused, "sorry I don't." 

"Everyone calls me Legind, I actually have forgotten what it says on my birth cert, I am the artist who does all the graphic novels for ATS." 

"Oh, I saw those in The Rim. Cool art." 

"Jonas thought so, he decided he wanted adaptations after Matrix was released so he had a web comp, there were like ten thousand entrants and I beat them all. Now I work at my own pace doing all the comics."

"And the posters, and other various designs," Gadget pointed out.

"Yeah – I pretty much run the show. Not bad when the local art school wouldn't even accept me." 

"Very good," Stef said. 

"So why are you guys here?" Legind asked. 

"Well, we were going to see Hobbit," Nevin said. "But now we're going to blow this place up." 

"Oh Nevin, you and your explosives," Legind said rolling her eyes. 

"What's he want to blow up now?" another voice said from behind them.

"Ruin, you're late," Legind said exhaustedly. 

"I'm only fourteen minutes late," Legind's friend Ruin said. She was an inch or two shorter than Stef, with long brown hair and blue-green eyes, she was wearing one of the 'Programs are People Too' t-shirts. "Or are you fourteen minutes early?" 

Legind shook her head, and chuckled. Ruin looked at Stef. "Hi, I'm Ruin. I co-write the graphic novels I could hear her taking all the credit for."

"Stef." 

"The real Stef?"

"Come on Ruin, it's not real," Legind said. "Only in our dreams." 

The five looked at each other and smirked, "think we can trust them?" Grady asked the rest.

Tavis scoffed sarcastically, "well, we trusted Gadget. I think these two are safe." 

Legind shook her head, "what are you talking about?" 

The guys smiled, "come with us," Tavis said, still managing to sound incredibly Morpheus-like. Knowing this place like the back of their hands they led them through to a little-used service corridor behind The Rim. It had originally been going to be used for offices but the rooms were empty. 

"What is this all about?" Legind asked as she looked at Ruin who was just as suspicious as she was. 

"Stef, if you'd be so kind," Grady said. Stef nodded and look of her sunglasses and smirked. Legind and Ruin stopped moving altogether, they didn't even breathe for a few moments. 

"Who, Grady did you…" Legind started to ask.

"No," he said with a smile, "I didn't." 

"Holy crap," Ruin said as she turned and looked at Legind, they stared at each other for a minute then started to jump up and down, "IT'S REAL!" they shouted as they bounced around the room. 

"How is this possible?" Legind asked. "I mean, you are real right?" 

"Don't doubt it for a minute," Stef said as she tucked the stray lock behind her ear again. "Is everyone in this world obsessed with the Matrix?" 

"Well," Nevin admitted, "at least everyone we talk to."

Legind opened her mouth to say something but one of the doors to the corridor opened and a security officer walked in. "What are you kids doing in here?" he asked, "you should know better than to come back here, you can get in a lot of trouble." 

"We were just," Nevin started nervously, "we were what guys?" 

"Waiting for Peter Neicth who own and operates Rim," Legind lied smoothly.

"Really?" the officer said with a bored look on his face, "the fact that I saw him going out to the parking lot five minutes ago has nothing to do with that then?" 

"Oh, maybe we're early," Ruin said as she motioned to the door. 

"Clear out," he said. All seven nodded and walked back out into the main part of the mall. 

"Well," Legind said, "anyone up for a snack?" the rest agreed so they walked into Rim and ordered some food while they grabbed a table with a computer. 

Ruin looked at Stef, "how the hell did you get here?" She sighed and ran through the basic version of what had happened as the food arrived. 

Gadget, sitting nearest the computer took the imitative and opened up the message board. Nevin sipped his soda, "anyone on?" 

"Only that Chives guy," Gadget said disappointedly. Chives was the kind of person who talked about himself a lot and could be truly obnoxious. 

"Look," Nevin said tapping the screen, "he made a new thread." Sighing, and with no other threads having been updated Gadget clicked on it. 

***

Thread by Chives: Jonas home early

Chives- remember how I told you all, my brother lets me fly free when he flies to cool places? (He's a pilot if you forgot) well, something WICKED happened today. You'll neva guess what. Jonas WAS ON THE SAME PLANE AS ME!!! He was flying first class of course but I got his AUTOGRAPH as the plane was boarding. GO ME! YAYAYAYAY! (I am happy) We landed about an hour ago. Damn jetlag, me go sleepy now.

***

"SHIT!" Gadget screamed. Nevin rubbed his ear.

"Bit louder, I don't think you woke all the dead."

"We have a serious problem," he said in a scarily detached voice. 

"What?" Grady asked with dread. He waved them over, crowding around his computer they looked at the thread he was reading. 

"This is really bad," Stef said with a hint of hysteria. "He's home already. It's over, I'm dead."

"He'll put you back in won't he?" 

"Maybe, maybe not – I don't know. And he'll know I'm missing."  

"I'm sorry," Grady said reaching over to put a hand on her shoulder. She pushed his hand away, standing from the table she walked out into the mall. 

"I'm going to talk a walk," she mumbled as she left. The others couldn't do anything but watch her walk away. The layout of the mall wasn't overly complicated so she'd find her way back. He was back, all their plans of getting back into the system undetected were dead, security might be lax while he was on vacation but surely he would notice when he was there using it. 

They didn't have that long until he found out, maybe he might also sleep off his jetlag first but that would only delay the inevitable. 

The guys only had four hundred and twenty dollars total, and they couldn't apply for a loan and have the money in less than a week. Tavis' granddad wasn't about to lend his grandson any more money so they were completely out of options. 

Finding a bench Stef sat down and sighed. 

*****

Jonas was tired with jetlag so he crashed as soon as they got home. He was asleep faster than Carol had ever seen him. Shaking her blond head she switched on his computer that was linked with the ones back at the labs. She had promised not to mess with anything, unless he was with her but there was no harm in looking.

She was quite adept with dealing with this system; she knew it as well as he did. Part of that was because she adapted quickly, part of it was because she had the knowledge downloaded into her. 

But something was strange; the system was on 'pause' because of an interruption. This may have been for a regular system check but after checking she found one wasn't running. 

A hacker!

Somehow some second-rate hacker had found their way into the JL server. Immediately checking all the top-secret research files she shifted through the logs to see what they had done. 

Judging by the access trail they were a fan of the franchise. Checking out trailers and clips and such she started to relax, there was nothing wrong with that. 

She stopped and stared at the last entry. 

They had found their way to the source codes. 

Jonas defiantly wouldn't be happy about that. 

A slow smile spread across her face and a chuckle escaped her lips as she saw exactly what they had done. 

Her. 

Well, this was cool. 

And she wasn't going to say a word to anyone. Especially not to Jonas, this was for her to know and for him to find out.

*****

Stef wasn't sure how long she sat on the bench, there wasn't a clock around and she didn't have a watch on. She'd go find the others in a minute; she just didn't want to face up to the fact that she might never get home. 

The bench she was on was near the door and a different security guard walked toward the door, tapping his stun baton, which was acting up. Giving it an especially heavy hit, it surged with electricity and the sudden increase in power caused Stef to blink in and out of existence. 

The guard looked over at her, having seen the disappearing act. "You, hologram, stand up." 

Stef kept her expression controlled like she did when Brown was around, "yes sir?" 

"Where is your owner? Why are you sitting being idle?"

"Um…"

"I'm right here," a small voice piped up behind the officer, he turned and saw Nevin who walked past and possessively wrapping his right arm around Stef and restraining her somewhat to stop her from saying anything stupid, "she's a glitchy new model. They haven't worked out all the bugs yet."

"What kind of hologram is it?" 

"Multi-purpose," Nevin said as he gave Stef a look that told her to play along. She fixed a happy Recruit-Anne-like bimbo smile on her face as the officer shook his head and walked away. Nevin sighed in relief as they sat back down. 

"Couldn't help yourself could you?" Stef asked Nevin as a broad smile remained on his face. 

"Not really, but it was for the best."

"How so?" 

"Um…some people have problems with holograms. They don't like them to speak as though they are nothing more than a piece of technology."

"But in this world they aren't."

"Some of the ones that come from AI labs you wonder about. The thing was AI and holographic researches were always two separate things. It was only in the last twenty years or so that they started to create human-like forms. Ten years since they could have solid form and only about five years ago they started walking around and implemented everywhere." 

"I see."

"They passed an ethical by-law to stop the researches clashing too much by not allowing holograms to be sentient. There are intelligent programs though, like the new Honda engine was designed by a machine." 

"What would happen if a hologram was found to be intelligent?" 

"They would simply be destroyed, all the evidence covered up and everyone knew about would forget about it or disappear." 

"That's not right." 

"The underground doesn't think so either." 

"Who?" 

"Hacker/programmers that live on the web, they have sites and boards that talk about there being intelligent holograms and how that should be allowed." 

"You're just not an idiot fan boy are you Nev?" 

"That is the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me. Can I hug you?" 

"Ok," she said as she gave him a hug. He wrapped his arms around her and smiled. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the others approaching. "You can let go now Nevin," she said. Grady smirked as his friend refused to let go. 

He grabbed Nevin's shoulders, "Nevin – detach now." Nevin made a series of whined like a puppy but let go. 

"But it's glomping day. I just wanted to glomp an agent." 

"And you did Nev," Stef said as she straightened her shirt. "If I had to breathe, I'd be dead." 

"But you're not human so you don't need to breathe," Gadget said. He received a couple of death-looks, "shutting up." 

"You want to know two of the things I hate the most?" Stef asked the trio, they nodded. "Being reminded that I'm not human, and being reminded that I was. Does that make any sense at all?" 

"Perfect sense, let's get you home." 

Stef stared up at him, "how exactly? We don't have a Spyder." Grady turned and looked at the other girls who deposited a large box in her lap. It was a Spyder. 

"You bought this?" they smiled and nodded. "Thank you so much. You don't know how much this means." 

Legind and Ruin smiled, "I think we do," Legind said. 

"Cab rank is just out the door, let's go. Maybe you can get back in before his jet lag wears off," Ruin said as they walked out and hailed a van-cab, with enough seats for them all. 

"We can only hope," Grady said, not sure if they would get back in time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ok, way different to the old version of Chap 6 but I did want to leave the trip to the mall in (in the old version they didn't actually go) (plus this version is over 1000 words longer). Working on Chap 7 now.   


	8. Skipping Servers

**Title**: Downloaded: Chapter Seven

**Author:** Stormhawk

**Rating:** PG

**Notes:** This is the last chap of DL, what's in here was actually going to be three really short chapters but now it's one.

**Word Count:** 3218

**Please Read and Review.**

It took about ten minutes for the cab them to get back to the guy's basement. Paying the holo-driver, they ran in and Grady immediately started hooking it up, he only hooked it to his central computer, for he would have time to connect it to the other two later. 

After he had hooked it back up he immediately set about doing the same thing that he had done to get into the system. Sneaky_key was working overtime to rerun the same lot of passwords but none worked. 

*****

Carol was sitting at the computer, waiting for the hackers to try and get back into the JL server, something she intended on stopping. 

In the next room she could hear Jonas stirring, the jetlag was wearing off, but she didn't want him interfering. She wanted to have control of the situation herself. 

Standing from the computer she mixed a couple of sleeping pills into a glass of water and made him drink it, less than half conscious, he didn't resist and he fell back into a deep sleep. 

She had changed the passwords as soon as she had learned about the hackers; it was a simple and standard procedure. Now she was going to go one step further. 

*****

"Finally," Grady said as one password locked in place. The word was 'Medusa' and it started to search for the next one. But a moment later the first firewall went back up and it began again.

"What the hell just happened?" Nevin said as he was watching over Grady's shoulder. 

"Password must have changed."

"Why?" Stef asked as she came over from talking to the two girls. 

"Either it's on an automatic cycle or someone is sitting there changing it," he said the last part with dread, knowing all the connotations of that.

"Jonas?"

"Who else would it be?" Legind pointed out. "Whoever is at the other end of the connection can see exactly what he's doing." 

*****

Carol had made a password program that cycled utterly random alphanumeric combinations and changed all the different firewall passwords every ninety seconds. No one would ever get into this system. 

She smirked at the screen, "your move."

*****

"What happens if he finds it's you hacking this system Grade?" Ruin asked. 

"No one can trace me."

"This is Jonas we are talking about, the single best programmer that has ever lived. You don't think he can trace some hacker, even a first class one like you?" 

"We have to get her home Ruin. It's my fault she's out here." 

"I know that, I also know what happens to people who cross him."

"Nothing is going to happen," Grady promised. 

"It might not be Jonas," Legind said. "It might be Carol." 

"That suddenly makes me feel so much better," Stef said sardonically. "So it's murderous psycho instead of an evil god." 

"Sorry," she said. 

"What the…?" Grady said with a jump, a small IM-like window had popped up on his screen from nowhere.

[Do you give up yet?] It asked. 

Grady looked around and understood the looks, [No.] he typed back. 

[You'll never get back in without my help. I've made this system impenetrable.] 

[We got in once.] Grady pointed out. He looked up at Stef, "who do you think it is?" 

"They're both as bad as each other. I don't know." 

***

[You aren't getting back in.] Carol typed but even as she did she took all the passwords off and waited for them to move. She had a plan in mind. And it was much better than sitting here all day trying to foil their plans to get back onto the server. 

After all, she was in charge of the system at the moment and had complete control over it. Until Jonas woke up she was free to do what she wanted. 

Carol smiled at that thought. 

***

"I don't know what she just did but we are in," Grady said as his fingers moved in double time trying to get back into the source code directory. "Found it," he said, breathing a sigh of relief. 

Nevin hunted around and found a thin uni-cable, and handed it to Grady, one end he hooked into his computer, and the other to a small port on the side of her disk. "We can start the upload in a minute." 

"It's been an honor," Tavis said bowing low.

"You are welcome oh Morpheus-like one, if he was as wise as you we'd be in trouble." 

"Can I have another hug?" Nevin asked, whining like a puppy again. 

Stef smirked, "will you let go?" 

He grinned, "maybe." She gave him a hug and Grady had to pull him away again. 

Legind and Ruin smiled, "would you autograph one of our books please?" Legind asked pulling the adaptation of 'Reality' out of her bag. Nodding, Stef grabbed a pen off the desk and scribbled her signature. 

Finally she turned and looked at Grady, "goodbye," he said simply. 

She smiled, "thank you."

"For what?" 

"Showing me everyone out here doesn't hate me, and then getting me back home." 

"You're welcome." He nodded and pressed a couple of keys on the keyboard, the hologram fizzed out as she was uploaded back onto the JL server. 

Then she was gone. 

*****

"Hello sequel," she heard a voice say as she opened her eyes. Carol. This was so not good; she had expected to be back home. Now she was in trouble. 

"So it was you." 

"Yeah," Carol said as she slid off the chair. 

"What do you want?" 

"Plenty of stuff but nothing you can help me with." 

"What are you going to do with me?" Stef asked as she looked around, she was pretty helpless as she was under the projector, she didn't have any solid form at the moment, she was just a trick of light. And her old clothes had been restored, since she was no longer connected to the somewhat damaged disk.

But, she realized as she looked around more, this wasn't the same place she had been the first time. This looked more like a house than a lab.

"I'm going to make you suffer like I have." 

"That's a bit melodramatic considering you were the one who made everyone else suffer. You're the murderer Whitman."

"I was insane. I can't be held responsible for my actions." Carol defended herself, she had been insane at the time, she wasn't anymore. 

"And you think you're sane now?" 

"I hate you."  

"Wow, this is news." Stef was trying to keep her sarcasm up, even though she knew Whitman was in complete control. Even knowing this, she wasn't really afraid. Carol turned away and typed a few things into the computer. "What are you doing?"

"Someone has to tell Smith about this. Since you've regretted to mention it before now." 

"Leave him out of this." 

"I really don't think so. He ruined my life. He stole my life away from me." 

"He did nothing like that. He gave you another chance, you blew it."

"To my memory, it's been less than a year since I was human." 

"You were never human. No one from the Matrix has ever been human. You live out here and you don't even realize that, we have never been anything except code." 

"So what?" she typed in a few more code sequences and held up a single finger. "I press this button and he comes out here and learns the truth." 

"Please don't."

"You really think I'm going to listen to you?"

"Where the hell is Jonas anyway?" 

"I gave him something to help him sleep. I thought I'd have some fun." 

"He's not going to be happy about this." 

"He can wipe Smith's memory if he wants. Or I can wipe your memories and make you forget about everything." 

"It's too much fun to let me remember everything so Jonas never wipes my memory." 

"What makes you think that?" 

"The fact that I remember everything." 

"You don't." 

"What are you talking about?"

"You call them 'nightmares' don't you?"

"Close enough." 

"There's quite a few you don't remember, trust me on that."

"You expect me to trust you." 

"You'd be a fool if you did but I'm not lying about that." 

"Carol?" Jonas called from the next room. "Who are you talking about?" he asked groggily as he woke up. 

"Go back to sleep," she called sweetly. 

"Miss me Jonas?" Stef called. Jonas was a jerk and had the role of 'evil god' but he was somewhat more predictable than Carol. 

"What the…?" Jonas demanded as he jumped out of bed and threw his glasses on. Leaning on the doorframe he took in the sight. "What is going on?" 

"I think it's blatantly obvious don't you?" Stef asked sardonically.

"Carol I told you not to play with the system." 

"I didn't, someone hacked in." 

"No one can hack here." 

"What? You think I pulled her out." 

"You were about to pull Smith out." Stef pointed out, hoping that this situation would somehow diffuse itself. Jonas shook his head and walked over to the computer. Shaking his head, he cancelled the commands Carol had put in. 

"They're just programs Jonas, can't we have a little fun?" Carol asked. 

"You're just a program too Carol," he said as he stood and ran a finger over her shoulder blade and down onto her chest. Stef turned away; really not wanting to see what she thought was going to happen. 

"How could you say that?" Carol asked, but somewhat dreamily, she was about as resolute as soft putty under his touch. 

"Easy," he said as he forced his fingers into her chest, "it's the truth." He said as he flicked the off switch. Hologram skin, no matter what model disk that they are attached to doesn't work like human skin. With enough constant force applied to an area, solid objects can pass into or through it. Placing the large disk, which was about the size of a laptop from the Matrix, on the desk he looked back at Stef. 

"She can be troublesome sometimes," he said with a sneer. "But she's worth it." 

"She'll be pissed when you turn her back on."

"Not that she'll remember the last few minutes, I'm going to make sure of that. Then I'll really turn her on and she won't bother to ask me about the missing memory." 

"I so wish I could puke right now." 

"Grow up." 

"Are you going to put me back in?" 

"I always do don't I? Maybe I shouldn't." Stef was silent. "So what did you think of this world this time?" 

"Different," she said suspiciously, wondering about the small talk. "I like Spyders. What's with the chit-chat Jonas?"

"Sometimes you act like Serica. It's strange to see that's all."    

"Did you base Whitman on anyone?" 

"Everything that was beautiful and perfect, features for the perfect woman. Lot of fun to program. But maybe she was right about one thing."

"What?" 

"Maybe we should tell Smith. I mean, he deserves the truth doesn't he?" 

"You've ruined my life, don't ruin his." 

"What life? You're both programs."

"Programs are people too." 

"Don't quote that hippy. That saying annoys me." 

"You'll have to accept it one day." 

"I'm a programmer, I think not." 

"You're too arrogant for your own good." 

"Don't talk to me like that. I can delete you faster than you could blink." 

"Then do it or send me back home." 

Jonas smirked and sat down in his chair. "You honestly think I'll just send you on your merry way?" 

"No," Stef said honestly. "Not really." 

"Oh good, you aren't as stupid as you look." 

"What then?"

"What makes you think I need to tell you? You're just a video game I play, just…fiction." He ended with a cruel smile. "I am so utterly in control, you have no idea. If I want something to happen, it happens. If it gets boring, I make it interesting. Like her," he said with a nod to Carol's control unit. 

"So it was you, I kind of suspected." 

"Yes," Jonas said. "It was me who sent her insane." He paused, "she was on the edge anyway, all I did was give her a little push."

"You going to tell her that?"

"No." Jonas said as he turned to the computer and started typing. He swore under his breath, as he had to work past a glitch, his system was nearly perfect but he had an annoying glitch that appeared sometimes. It wasn't anything important or damaging though, so he didn't bother about trying to rip apart his codes trying to find it. 

The lights above Stef pulsed, "so what's it going to be this time Jonas?" 

Jonas turned, "maybe you'll find out, maybe you won't." he said as he brought his finger down and struck a single key. "Maybe it's not even you I'll mess with."

She disappeared and he set about the task of deleting some of Carol's memories so that she wouldn't be suspicious. 

*****

"No, I am not going to listen to you. It's not possible for school to be fun," Stevie's voice said as Stef appeared back in the Matrix; it was like no time at all had passed. 

"Hey Stevie."

"Wow, you look really spaced out, you ok?" 

"I'm fine." She said as she took a sigh of relief, she was home again. 

"Ok. Well, for once and for all. School is not…" 

"Koshin?" a voice asked from behind her. 

Stef turned and saw Recruit Zane Kembrick; well of course it was Zane as no one else called her that. It was a Zen name he had given her. "Hey Zane." She flashed Stevie a quick look that told the teenager not to say anything. Zane was nice, but he was a recruit – Brown's recruit – and Agent Brown would be the first person to order all of their deaths if he ever found out about Stevie. 

The recruit gave her a strange look, well it was earned because she wasn't in her uniform and she was sitting in a food court with a human teenager. "Would you like to sit?" they would have to be extremely careful with what they said but it was better than yelling about the Matrix for the public to hear. 

Zane looked over at the teenager, "I'm Zane Kembrick – who are you?" 

Stevie smiled and knew what to say, "My name's Brooke. Are you a recruit?" 

"She's a collaborator," Stef said to the young man's look, he hadn't expected the young girl to know about the Matrix. 

"A what?" 

"Brown's told you about the Exodus crew right? The ones who got plugged back in?"

"Yeah, he doesn't trust them though."

"Brooke is one of them." 

"Oh, ok. Like being back in the dream world Alice?" 

Stevie smiled, "I'm back home, that's what's important." 

"Finding a dream to fight for, that's what life is all about," the short recruit said, Stevie nodded in agreement.

"So what are you doing here?" 

"What I always do," he said with a sigh, "trailing recruits." 

"Who are the unlucky ones this time?" 

"Anne, she's here on her rec time. But I saw Seiko over in the CD store." 

"Stef, you can give him his CD," Stevie said digging it out of one of the bags. 

"Yeah, ok. You don't mind Zane?" 

He shook his head, "nah – I got to go watch Anne though. How many clothing stores are there in this mall?"

"Too many," she said with a sympathetic nod as they walked off. 

"That was close," Stevie said as they walked out of sight. 

"Yeah, I know. No one said it would be easy Steves." Stef said they walked into the store. Stevie went off to look at some CDs that she may have missed while Stef walked over to Greer. The tall recruit was wearing clothes that matched the motorcycle he so often required, well almost. He had a deep navy shirt on with black pants and a chunky silver chain around his neck. He was busy flipping through death-metal while not paying much attention to the world around him. He laughed at seemingly nothing before selecting a CD and looking at the tracks. 

"Something funny?" she asked, he turned and shushed her. He chuckled again as if laughing at some private joke. 

"Damn," he said softly and stopped smiling.

"Going to let me in on the joke?"

"Prank call, I was listening in on a prank call. They hung up though."

"Oh, sometimes your power has its advantages." 

"Yeah, I think so." 

"Notice the new Shadows album?" 

"System Debris?"

"Got a copy for you before…what?" she asked as he was looking past her.

"Look at that…can't be…isn't that?"

"Who?"

"Hey Stevie," he called across to the teenager. 

As Stevie turned and asked 'what?' Stef felt her life fall apart. No, this wasn't happening. Greer looked back at her and whispered down at her, "When you told me about her, you said she was dead. What's going on?"

Stef shifted the three of them from the store and into a dark alley. "Stef what is going on?"

She could just shoot him and leave his body in the alley, but that was a last choice option. "Can I trust you Greer?"

"Of course you can," he said without hesitation. 

"If you jeopardize her life, I will kill you." 

"I know that, but you can trust me."

"God I hope so. Come here Stevie," she said waving her over. "Stevie Smith this Greer and vice versa." 

"Hey," Stevie said. 

"I'm going to shift you home ok?" Stevie nodded and disappeared. 

Greer slumped against the wall, "you told me about the experiment, you told me about Stevie, you told me she died." 

"I lied. About the last part anyway."

"Does Smith know?"

"Well, duh, of course he knows his own daughter is alive." 

"Please don't make my brain work overtime." 

"We made it look like she died. We…got Anderson and his cronies to take her out," his midnight eyes flashed at her. "We aren't traitors, it was the only way she could live – she would have been killed." 

"So what happened after she got out?" 

"What you would expect of rebels, treated her like crap, tried to convert her, Anderson threatened to kill her a couple of times." 

"So how'd she get back in?" 

"She ran away from the Nebuchadnezzar. Just left – which by the way is usually suicide. Thank whoever for the Exodus though."

"The crew that got plugged back in?"

"Half of them anyway. They found her and helped her, then she got plugged back in. She's living under an assumed name now." 

"How'd you manage that?"

"Faked file," she hoped he didn't ask any further into that because she hadn't been the one to create the file, that was Jonas' doing. 

"I see," Greer said. "So no one else knows?"

"You, Smith, me and the Exodus. And the rebels of course but they aren't exactly going to rat us out. Can you keep it a secret?" He nodded. 

"So what's her assumed name so I don't slip up?"

"Brooke S Tarker. Thank you Greer." 

"Welcome." 

"So tell me about the Exorcist crew," he said with a smirk. 

The End. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Holy Jonas this chapter took a long time to write. I didn't like the old ending (or the other three versions of this chap). Zane makes his first appearance in an ATS ep not written by TheRedPony (go check out Bohidharmazan if you haven't already) and Greer finding out about Stevie was a plot hole the needed to be filled.  

Also going up today is Barrier of Existence, a Greer-centric episode. 

And don't worry, we'll see the trio + Gadget + Legind and Ruin again.


End file.
